Yoga for Beauty with Rainbeau Mars: Dawn and Dusk

Rainbeau Mars
Year Released: 2005

Categories: Yoga


Yogini Rainbeau Mars, best known for her “Sacred Yoga Practice” series, has released a new yoga series titled “Yoga for Beauty.” This series offers two practices, Dawn, or the sunrise practice, and Dusk, or the sunset practice. In both, Rainbeau instructs a class of four participants, this time in an indoor studio (although it is decorated with many plants to suggest the outdoors). Two of the assistants show modifications, one for limited flexibility and one for limited strength. While chant-like music plays in the background, Rainbeau offers both live and voiceover instruction: she speaks live while setting up poses and moving through vinyasas for the first time, but she switches to voiceover while poses are being held. Her left-right cueing is inconsistent; sometimes she mirror cues, sometimes she does not. At the beginning and end of both practices, Rainbeau is shown performing a beautiful flow of poses a la Ana Forrest in Strength and Spirit.

The first practice, Dusk, is 44 minutes long and is designed to awaken and energize in the a.m. It begins in a seated, cross-legged position for a short series of forward bend, side stretch with neck release, and side twist. Next comes a transition to hands and knees for cat/dog stretches, adding in a lion breath. From here, you move into down dog and then come into a standing forward bend position to practice what Rainbeau calls “belly cleansing,” which is a sort of nauli prep and which is repeated once. Then you move to the front of the mat for sun salutations: three half sun salutations, one round of sun salutation A with crescent lunge and an easy twist, then two rounds of sun salutation B, repeating crescent lunge and adding warrior one plus a crescent twist (cobras are subbed for upward dog in all versions). A final sun salutation B adds an airplane balance plus a fun transition to a simple seat twist before; you then move to lying to lie face down on the floor for some gentle backbends, including full cobra, spinx with a quad stretch, bow pose, and then child’s pose to release the back. Coming seated, you perform a forward bend and cobbler’s pose before double-folding your blanket under your back like a bolster for a supported final relaxation which includes a meditation on colors. The practice ends back in a seated position, with Rainbeau encouraging you to honor your work and touch your mind’s eye before coming into namaste.

The second practice, Dusk, is 45 minutes long and is designed for relaxation and release at the end of the day, mainly through hip opening and core work. The practice starts in savasana; you begin to focus on your core via both breathing and simple movement. After rolling into a seated position, you stretch in child’s pose, move into downward dog, and transition into 3-legged downward dog for a hip stretch. Returning to core work, you move into a face-down lying position and raise alternate arm and leg; you then do the same thing from a hands and knees position, adding a knee to nose stretch and then finally performing the same knee to nose stretch in down dog. Next comes two round of sun salutation B, the first with warrior one and the second pyramid pose plus several lunge variations to stretch the hips. Transitioning to seated position for more hip work, you perform seated pigeon, rock the cradle, boat, and then thread the needle in a reclined position; there are also a few additional core-strengthening moves. You then grab your blanket for shoulderstand: starting in plow, you raise into shoulderstand, hold for an extended period, lower back into plow, and then roll back down. A brief lying twist to release the back precedes a nice savasana, and then it’s back to seated to finish with namaste.

I really enjoyed both of these practices and look forward to doing them often. I probably preferred the Dawn practice a bit more; although I loved the hip opening work in Dusk, the tough core work was a bit more challenging than I'd ideally want from a relaxing evening practice. Overall, however, these are well thought out, well executed, and well produced yoga practices, and I would highly recommend the set.

Instructor Comments:
Rainbeau Mars emanates a happy, hippy vibe similar to Eoin Finn. Throughout the practices, she makes statements such as "enjoy your breath," and she frequently encourages you to connect with the beauty inside. Her cueing is a bit inadequate at times, and some short portions of these practices flow with little or no instruction. Overall, however, I find Rainbeau to be pleasant and soothing, and I enjoy doing yoga with her.

Beth C (aka toaster)

04/17/2005