Shiva Rea

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.

Shiva Rea in Hawaii, 2007

Life
Rea's father liked the image of Dancing Shiva (Nataraja), and named his daughter after the god.[1] Chola bronze, 12th century, Tanjore, India

Shiva Rea was born in Hermosa Beach, California, in 1967;[2] her father, liking the image of Nataraja, dancing Shiva, named her after that Hindu deity.[1] She studied dance anthropology at UCLA, completing her master's thesis in 1997 on "hatha yoga as a practice of embodiment".[1] She studied under yoga and tantra masters including Swami Sivananda Saraswati and Daniel Odier.[1] She practised the vigorous Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga for ten years, adopting a more restorative style when she became pregnant.[1] She teaches Vinyasa flow yoga, having created her own style called Prana Vinyasa, and yoga trance dance.[1][3] She teaches in the USA and many countries around the world, touring each year.[1] 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.[4][5] She has contributed to publications including Yoga Journal[6][7] and Yoga International.[8]

Honours and distinctions

The author and yoga therapist Janice Gates honoured Rea with a chapter of her 2006 book Yoginis.[1] Rea has contributed invited forewords to Mark Stephens's book Yoga Adjustments: Philosophy, Principles, and Techniques,[9] to Alanna Kaivalya's book Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition,[10] and to Lorin Roche's book The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight.[11]

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

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" criticising her claim to be teaching traditional yoga.[17]

Works

Books
  • 1997 Hatha Yoga as a Practice of Embodiment, UCLA thesis
  • 2014 Tending the Heart Fire: Living in Flow with the Pulse of Life. Sounds True. ISBN 978-1604077094

Videos
  • 2006 Sun Salutations: awakening the flow
  • 2006 Yoga Shakti
  • 2006 Yoga Trance Dance
  • 2007 Fluid Yoga
  • 2007 Fluid Power
  • 2007 Radiant Heart Yoga
  • 2007 Fluid Yoga Spinal Stretch
  • 2007 Fluid Yoga Standing Strength
  • 2008 Flow Yoga for Beginners
  • 2009 Surf Yoga Soul
  • 2009 Daily Energy - Vinyasa Flow Yoga
  • 2009 Creative Core + Upper Body
  • 2009 Daily Energy Flow - Yoga Upper Body Core Stretch
  • 2011 A.M. Energy Yoga
  • 2011 More Daily Energy
  • 2012 Daily Energy Collection
  • 2013 Yoga in Greece - Deep Lunar Stretch
  • 2016 Creative Core Abs: Spontaneous Core
  • 2016 Creative Core Abs: Water Core
  • 2016 Creative Core + Lower Body - Creative Roots

References
  1. Gates 2006, pp. 120–126.
  2. Collins, Amy Fine (15 June 2007). "Planet Yoga". Vanity Fair.
  3. "Shiva Rea". Gaia. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  4. "Welcome to the Evolutionary Global Prana Vinyasa Teacher Studies Program!". Shiva Rea. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  5. "Prana Vinyasa Global Training". Shiva Rea. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  6. "Shiva Rea". Yoga Journal. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  7. "About Shiva". Yoga International. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  8. Rea, Shiva. "Introduction to the Dosha Series". Yoga International. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  9. Stephens, Mark (3 June 2014). Yoga Adjustments: Philosophy, Principles, and Techniques. North Atlantic Books. Foreword. ISBN 978-1-58394-784-5.
  10. Kaivalya, Alanna (2016). Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition. Mandala Publishing. pp. 8ff. ISBN 978-1-68383-023-8.
  11. Roche, Lorin (2014). The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight. Sounds True. pp. 9–15. ISBN 978-1-62203-166-5.
  12. White, Barbara Prudhomme (2015). "The effects of yoga on incarcerated individuals' selfperception of life orientation (optimism/pessimism), perceived stress, and self-efficacy" (PDF). International Journal of Yoga and Allied Sciences. 2 (2): 85. ISSN 2278-5159.
  13. Shorr, Manya (1 September 2009). "Yoga/Pilates DVDs: A Healthy Balance" (PDF). The Library Journal: 29.
  14. Koch, Anne (2014). "Competitive Charity: A Neoliberal Culture of 'Giving Back' in Global Yoga". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 30 (1): 73–88. doi:10.1080/13537903.2015.986977. ISSN 1353-7903.
  15. Hontz, Jenny (21 August 2006). "Yoga's rock stars". Los Angeles Times.
  16. Collins, Amy Fine; O'Neill, Michael (photographer) (15 June 2007). "Planet Yoga". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  17. Gold, Bizzie (13 December 2017). "An Open Letter to Shiva Rea". Buti Yoga. Retrieved 28 July 2020.

Sources
  • Gates, Janice (2006). Yogini: Women Visionaries of the Yoga World. Mandala. ISBN 978-1932771886.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Official website

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