I received this DVD as a preview copy. There are three yoga practices on the DVD, all roughly 20 minutes each. Each of the practices is done beside a lovely lake; very peaceful. The first practice begins in seated meditation, rubbing our hands together and covering our eyes (I don’t know why, but I always feel silly doing this.) We open our eyes and begin by dropping the left shoulder to the right knee, then the right shoulder to the left knee. (Right away, I noticed that Tara does NOT mirror cue.) These stretches transition to seated torso circles (I always like doing these!) We move to our hands and knees and begin a vinyasa where we push forward into our hands, then sink back into child’s pose; we do this a few times and end in child’s pose. We sit back on heels, then reach back to grab our heels and lift our buttocks for a gentle backbend. We return to our hands and knees for what I call bird-dog pose (alternate lifting left arm/right leg, right arm/left leg.) From here, we transition to downward-facing dog and forward fold, then end in mountain pose.

The second practice begins in mountain pose (so you could continue from the previous practice) with overhead arms, then we turn to twist the torso from side to side. Next is a vinyasa from chair pose to forward fold, back to chair then mountain pose, back to chair then lunge into plank, and finally child’s pose to upward dog. Returning to downward-facing dog, we repeat the vinyasa on the other side. After rolling up into mountain pose, we do another quick vinyasa: Forward fold to lunge to plank to cobra to child pose, all done in one very fluid motion. Next we go from downward-facing dog to forward fold, lift to mountain pose, exhale to chair pose, and return to forward fold. We then transition from plank to downward-facing dog; we do this a few times before returning to downward-facing dog. From here, we lift one leg high behind up (dog splits) then step the foot forward into a lunge, lift up into warrior one, float down to plank, then press into lift into updog. We push back to downdog and repeat the vinyasa on the other side, after which we transition to pigeon and a few spinal twists. Our last few moves are mountain pose to forward fold, back to mountain pose, and ending in tree pose. This was a very fluid practice.

The third practice begins with sun salutations and moves into forward folds, then we step into plank, lift into updog, and push into downdog. We transition from warrior one to warrior two, then triangle pose. Then it’s back to warrior two, warrior one, updog, downdog, warrior one, warrior two, triangle pose, warrior two, then warrior one. Whew, this is a fast, fluid vinyasa! Next, we move from plank to updog, downdog to forward fold, plank to downdog, warrior one to warrior two, then triangle – this vinyasa is repeated several times. We return to plank, then kneel and lean back for a seated backbend and forward for seated forward fold. We move into bridge pose, do a few spinal twists on the floor, then lie on our backs with our legs in the air, soles of the feet to the ceiling. Push legs out to the walls, then lift legs again with toes pointed at the ceiling. We do one more backbend before relaxing into corpse pose. This was another fast, fluid practice.

This was a decent yoga practice with beautiful scenery, quiet music, and gentle-voiced instruction. There were times when I thought the practice dragged a bit, but I’ve never been big on the “spiritual” side of yoga. On the other hand, some of the poses were challenging (i.e., the backbends), so perhaps slow and easy was the smart way to go.

Instructor Comments:
Tara has a pleasant, soothing voice and the music she selected for these practives was calm and relaxing; perfect for this practice.

Debbie J