Jihye’s movement journey began in childhood with rhythmic gymnastics and continued through her exploration of diverse exercise disciplines to enhance her physical conditioning. As a professional dancer and choreographer, she received top honors at international dance festivals and performed extensively as a member of a dance company. She graduated at the top of her class with a Bachelor’s degree in Dance and a Master’s degree in Dance Studies, and she continues to pursue research grounded in kinesiology.

In 2004, after earning her first Pilates certification, she began her career as a Pilates instructor—another natural extension of her lifelong movement practice. While working as both an artist and movement educator, she completed three comprehensive Pilates training programs and obtained certification from the Pilates Method Alliance, along with numerous other qualifications across various exercise disciplines.

In 2011, at a moment of personal doubt about her life as an artist, she chose to retire and reexamine the physical disciplines she had long engaged with, both as a leader and as a participant. During this period, she trained in and taught Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis, among many other methods. Yet her desire for truly functional movement continued without interruption.

In 2015, in the midst of this search, she met Jay Grimes, a student of Joseph Pilates, in Los Angeles. She regards this encounter as the greatest fortune of her life in movement. At Vintage Pilates, where Jay Grimes served as director, she resolved the long-standing thirst she had felt across many movement systems and rediscovered her passion.

She became the first person from Asia to be selected for and graduate from Jay Grimes’s Master Program. For approximately ten years thereafter, until his passing, she continued her studies and practice under his direct education and guidance as a devoted transmitter of his work. She considers her years with Jay to represent the most effective and functional movement experience of her lifelong journey. Based on this foundation, she introduced to Korea, for the first time, the complete Pilates system and Original Classes in their classical form, as well as an apprenticeship-style teacher training program inspired by the traditional method of transmission.

She currently serves as the director of POP PILATES™ and Apprentice of Contrology®. Under her direction, a studio system restoring even Joseph Pilates’s original studio operating model was established for the first time, and an individualized educational program reviving structural originality continues to be offered.

She is also the author of ‘My Second Passion’ and ‘We’re Each Other’s First’, and she seeks to share with others the positive physical and mental transformations made possible through Pilates, both as a guide and as a lifelong participant.