Shiva Rea is credited as a key popularizer of modern yoga in the United States: She transformed the physical practice and in so doing, helped to define our mainstream conception of what yoga “is.”

In this episode, we discuss the roots of her Prana Vinyasa style, the aesthetic evolution of yoga chicks from the 1980s to now, yoga’s waning counter-cultural status, and why the knee-jerk response to accusations of cultural appropriation—to further divide the spiritual from the physical—does no one any good. 

Discussed:

“Planet Yoga,” Vanity Fair (2007)

“Yoga Without Love Beads” LA Times (1987)

“Tending the Sacred Fire” Shiva at Burning Man (2011)

“The power of embodying your energetic heart” Shiva’s TEDxMalibu talk (2014)

Shiva Rea Yoga | Earth Flow Practice

Shiva Rea Yoga | Dancing Warrior 
Special thanks to Michelle Chambers, (E-RYT 500, MPA, Pulse Yoga Collective), Kristen Lynch, and Becky Simon for all their help on this ep!