Shiva Rea Explained

Shiva Rea (born 1967) is a teacher of Vinyasa flow yoga and yoga trance dance. She is the founder of Prana Vinyasa Yoga. She is one of the best-known yoga teachers in America, and around the world.

Life

Shiva Rea was born in Hermosa Beach, California, in 1967;[1] her father, liking the image of Nataraja, dancing Shiva, named her after that Hindu deity. She studied dance anthropology at UCLA, completing her master's thesis in 1997 on "hatha yoga as a practice of embodiment". She studied under yoga and tantra masters including Swami Sivananda Saraswati and Daniel Odier.She practised the vigorous Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga for ten years, adopting a more restorative style when she became pregnant. She teaches Vinyasa flow yoga, having created her own style called Prana Vinyasa, and yoga trance dance.[2] She teaches in the USA and many countries around the world, touring each year. Teachers are similarly trained in the USA and around the world in 200, 300 and 500 hour courses in her Prana Vinyasa yoga, which claims to combine tantra, yoga, and ayurveda.[3] [4] She has contributed to publications including Yoga Journal[5] [6] and Yoga International.[7]

Honors and distinctions

The author and yoga therapist Janice Gates honored Rea with a chapter of her 2006 book on women in yoga, Yoginis. Rea has contributed invited forewords to Mark Stephens's book Yoga Adjustments: Philosophy, Principles, and Techniques,[8] to Alanna Kaivalya's book Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition,[9] and to Lorin Roche's book The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight.[10]

She has been called one of America's leading yoga teachers.[11] The Library Journal described Rea as a "big name" and a "well-established instructor", whose DVDs embodied the "highest production values".[12] In 2009 she created Global Mala Day to coincide with the United Nations International Day of Peace.[13] The Los Angeles Times described her as one of "yoga's rock stars",[14] and her classes as feeling "more like a multicultural dance session".[15]

In 2007 Vanity Fair called her "the Madonna of the yoga world" in a desert photo shoot; the photographer, Michael O'Neill portrayed her in Dancer pose (Natarajasana) wearing bikini briefs and an outsize bead necklace, with two tigers in a featureless flat landscape. The article said she was "the best-known instructor of Vinyasa flow yoga" and famous for "Yoga Trance Dance". It stated that she visits up to thirty-five countries every year on her teaching tours.[16]

Controversy

In 2017, Bizzie Gold of Buti Yoga published "An Open Letter to Shiva Rea", criticizing her claim to be teaching traditional yoga.[17]

Works

Books

Videos

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Collins . Amy Fine . Planet Yoga . Vanity Fair . 15 June 2007.
  2. Web site: Shiva Rea . Gaia . 12 July 2019.
  3. Web site: Welcome to the Evolutionary Global Prana Vinyasa Teacher Studies Program! . Shiva Rea . 12 July 2019.
  4. Web site: Prana Vinyasa Global Training . Shiva Rea . 12 July 2019.
  5. Web site: Shiva Rea . . 12 July 2019.
  6. Web site: About Shiva . Yoga International . 12 July 2019.
  7. Web site: Rea . Shiva . Introduction to the Dosha Series . Yoga International . 12 July 2019.
  8. Book: Stephens, Mark . Yoga Adjustments: Philosophy, Principles, and Techniques . 3 June 2014 . North Atlantic Books . 978-1-58394-784-5 . Foreword.
  9. Book: Kaivalya, Alanna . Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition . 2016 . Mandala Publishing . 978-1-68383-023-8 . 8ff.
  10. Book: Roche, Lorin . The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight . 2014 . Sounds True . 978-1-62203-166-5 . 9–15.
  11. White . Barbara Prudhomme . The effects of yoga on incarcerated individuals' selfperception of life orientation (optimism/pessimism), perceived stress, and self-efficacy. . International Journal of Yoga and Allied Sciences . 2015 . 2 . 2 . 85 . 2278-5159.
  12. Shorr . Manya . Yoga/Pilates DVDs: A Healthy Balance . The Library Journal . 1 September 2009 . 29 .
  13. Koch . Anne . Competitive Charity: A Neoliberal Culture of 'Giving Back' in Global Yoga . Journal of Contemporary Religion . 30 . 1 . 2014 . 73–88 . 1353-7903 . 10.1080/13537903.2015.986977. 144764754 .
  14. News: Hontz . Jenny . Yoga's rock stars . . 21 August 2006.
  15. News: Herman . Valli . How Shiva Rea found yoga -- and how it changed her life . 1 August 2022 . . 11 October 2015.
  16. Collins . Amy Fine . O'Neill . Michael (photographer) . Planet Yoga . 28 July 2020 . Vanity Fair . 15 June 2007.
  17. Web site: Gold . Bizzie . An Open Letter to Shiva Rea . Buti Yoga . 28 July 2020 . 13 December 2017.

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