Search - Yoga Journal: Great Instructors (Baron Baptiste, Shiva Rea, Seane Corn) on DVD

Excellent set provides 3 different yoga practices with maste

Beth Cholette | Upstate NY USA | 12/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Yoga Journal Great Instructors series box set presents three DVDs offering three different 90-minute yoga workshops which were filmed at the Yoga Journal annual conference in San Francisco. Each of these practices is taught by a master yoga instructor, and although they all teach some form of vinyasa yoga, the three practices are actually quite different from one another.

Seane Corn's practice, "Yoga from the Heart," is the most spiritual of the three. She presents a 90-minute class which combines demanding vinyasa sequences, detailed alignment instruction, and frequent references to spirituality in the form of God, love for self, and love for others. Seane emphasizes intention and meaning throughout as she works the body with sun salutations, standing postures, shoulder openers, spine openers, hip openers, back openers (including full wheel), and relaxation. Her DVD offers several extra meditation sequences, including a guided meditation and a singing meditation.

"Free Flow Yoga" is Shiva Rea's contribution to this set. Like the title implies, this is a quite non-traditional 90-minute class, with plenty of opportunity to incorporate your own movements into the practice. Although there are certainly some classic yoga postures included, Shiva focuses more on fluid movement rather than static holds of the poses. Many sequences take the form of mandalas and involve a flow of poses which revolve in a circle, sometimes causing you to face the back of the room; Shiva maintains that this is a positive thing for moving out of your comfort zone. The practice can feel almost dancey at times, and Shiva incorporates elements such as lion's breath and chanting. The free-form style is certainly not for everyone, but it can have a very freeing and calming effect.

In Baron Baptiste's class, "Foundations of Power Vinyasa Yoga," he emphasizes the importance of foundation and form in each posture. His practice is the most traditional of the three, beginning with sun salutations A & B and moving on to standing postures, basic backbends, seated poses, and a final relaxation sequence. The class is designed to teach the fundamentals of the postures, making it accessible to more beginning students and beyond. Baron keeps the postures basic and offers many modifications; he is quite affable and engaging, coming across as less scripted here than in his other videos.

All three of these DVDs are very well-chaptered; the Main Menus list a Play All option, Introduction, Chapters, and Special Features. The Special Features include as Yoga Journal advertisements as well as a short interview with each insturctor. The practices have excellent production values, and each one features a yoga demonstrator in the center of the room as well as assistants offering adjustments. Overall, this is an excellent DVD set that would be ideal for someone looking to work with a varied range of vinyasa yoga techniques."

Holy Cow

Fitness Freak | NJ | 11/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Man I love this DVD SET! It's completely different than the usual Yoga DVDs I buy...it's an actual class with these instructors and you are there with them. think it was filmed live...very cool, I hope they may more...also didn't really know Sean Corn but she's great too!"