Why Ori Active?
Ori - Ori Tahiti translates into "Tahitian Dance". My mother started dancing when she was young and started teaching me when I was 8. I learned Hawaiian, Tahitian, Maori, and Samoan dances and I fell in love with all of it - the dance, the music, the culture - I couldn't get enough, and still dance with a group every week. Starting in the mid 1980's there were Hula groups that would host seminars and they flew instructors in from Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, or New Zealand for a weekend and we would learn dances, attend lectures, and of course make life-long friends. I still attend these seminars at least once a year in the midwest.
Active - I have always been involved in fitness. Started working out regularly in a gym in my early twenties and also did home workouts to VHS tapes (and then DVDs). I started buying and selling some workouts on eBay and found it to be a way to make some extra money. I turned that into a business in 1999 and that eventually turned into our website - www.totalfitnessdvds.com.
Putting Ori Active Together - Since wearing athletic wear everyday started to become more popular I have been searching for Hawaiian or Tahitian prints that I liked on workout wear. I couldn't find any and my friends in Hawaii couldn't find any that they liked either. It tended to be wild/loud floral prints which wasn't what we were looking for. I was looking for something a little more understated and more sophisticated. After looking at yet another wild floral print on a pair of leggings I said to a friend of mine "I could design something better than that". She said "you could!" Eventually she convinced me to go for it and Ori Active was born! A big Mahalo Nui Loa to Gloria because without her this dream would not have come true.
