Tara Stiles

Tara Stiles (2010)

Tara Leann Stiles (born May 6, 1981 in Morris , Illinois ) is an American yoga teacher , former model and founder of Strala Yoga.

life and career

Stiles grew up in the city of Morris in the American state of Illinois . After graduating from high school, she moved to Chicago to study ballet.

During her studies, Stiles first came into contact with yoga through one of her ballet teachers. At the same time she was discovered by the modeling agency Ford Models and left Chicago to work as a model in New York . However, she soon realized that the modeling career was not her goal in life.

In 2006, Stiles published her first yoga videos for Ford Models on Youtube and very soon began using various internet platforms and social media to make yoga accessible to as many people as possible. She has written successful yoga blogs for the US Women's Health Magazine and the online newspaper Huffington Post , among others .

Stiles started her career as a yoga teacher in New York in 2007, where she initially led free courses. In 2008 she finally founded her own yoga studio Strala in New York City. Her unconventional approach to yoga aside from the traditional yoga philosophy has earned Stiles the reputation as a “yoga rebel”: “People need yoga (...) and not a spiritual leader.” -Studio and in many partner studios around the world, she tries to provide the most informal access to yoga and to forego strict rules: “It is important to me that people understand that yoga is not an elite club. In order to convey that, I approach the matter in a very uncomplicated way. ”In her lessons, Stiles dispenses with Sanskrit terms and traditional yoga chants and instead focuses on the fitness and well-being effects of yoga. She accompanies her courses with modern music and describes it as a "yoga party". The most famous students and fans of Tara Stiles include Jane Fonda and the author Deepak Chopra .

To date, Stiles has published two books and several exercise DVDs and also operates her own YouTube channel with free yoga and cooking videos.

Tara Stiles is a testimonial and ambassador for Reebok and has already developed several yoga collections together with the fitness brand.

Strala yoga

Stiles founded the yoga center "Strala" in Manhattan in 2008 together with husband Michael Taylor , where she still gives yoga classes to this day. The name "Strala" was initially a pure word creation, only later it turned out that the word "strala" means "to shine" in Swedish. Strala is no longer just the name of the yoga studio, but rather stands for the unconventional approach to yoga developed by Tara Stiles, the focus of which is not on the traditional yoga philosophy and compliance with rules, but on physical well-being and fun the movement.

In addition to Tara Stiles, 16 other yoga teachers are currently working in her New York studio. In addition, Strala also offers training for external yoga teachers. Strala yoga is now taught by several thousand yoga teachers around the world in yoga schools, fitness studios and Strala partner studios.

Strala is offered in over 2,000 schools in the United States as part of Bill Clinton's Alliance for a Healthier Generation school program.

criticism

Tara Stiles, who links to various lifestyle products recommended by her on her homepage, is accused of commercializing yoga. She received particular criticism when she performed yoga poses for an American hotel chain in a glass car driving through New York. This would give her a false ideal of women (slim, sexy), and even support misogynous ideas.

With videos like “Yoga against a hangover” on YouTube, she instrumentalizes yoga unrestrainedly and focuses on physical training and slimness and less on the actual goal of yoga.

The Huffington Post also asks whether she is quackery with her book "Yoga Cures" and accuses her of portraying yoga as a panacea in a dubious and improper way.

It is also criticized that Tara Stiles, who trains yoga teachers herself, does not state with whom she learned yoga.

Publications (selection)

• Slim Calm Sexy Yoga. Rodale, Emmaus, Pa. 2010, ISBN 978-1-60529-556-5 .
• Daily yoga. Jane Fonda's workout. Watch It Now Entertainment, Beverly Hills 2010 (DVD).
• Yoga transformation. Weight loss and balance. with Deepak Chopra , Lions Gate Home Entertainment, Santa Monica 2011 (DVD).
• Yoga cures. Three Rivers Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-307-95485-5 .
• How Yoga Heals: Simple Exercises for 50 Common Ailments. Knaur, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-426-65729-4 .

Web links

• Official homepage of Tara Stiles
• Strala yoga
• Tara Stiles Youtube-Channel
• Literature by and about Tara Stiles in the WorldCat bibliographic database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} "Rebel Yoga" article on nytimes.com. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} "Yoga Rebel Tara Stiles: The People Need Yoga" Interview with Tara Stiles on yogaeasy.com. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
3. ↑ ^{a b} "Tara Stiles: Why Yoga Makes Us Beautiful" Interview with Tara Stiles on brigitte.de. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} "Interview with yoga icon Tara Stiles" netzathleten.de. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
5. ↑ "The horror of the downward looking dogs" Interview with Tara Stiles on berliner-zeitung.de. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Strala on Facebook ( Memento from February 17, 2016 in the web archive archive.today )
7. ↑ http://www.yogabasics.com/connect/is-tara-stiles-yoga-inauthentic/
8. ↑ http://yoga-magazin.net/tara-stiles-erntet-kritik-fuer-werbeaktion/  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ http://nypost.com/2014/05/28/look-at-me-celebs-take-over-yoga-world-with-public-poses/
10. ↑ http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/06/yogas-glass-act/
11. ↑ http://www.rundschau-online.de/magazin/tara-stiles-yoga-fuer-grossstadtmenschen,15184902,15330292.html
12. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stewart-j-lawrence/hair-of-the-down-dog-tara_b_2662761.html