[1] She studied dance anthropology at UCLA, completing her master's thesis in 1997 on "hatha yoga as a practice of embodiment".

She practised the vigorous Ashtanga (vinyasa) yoga for ten years, adopting a more restorative style when she became pregnant.

[13] The Library Journal described Rea as a "big name" and a "well-established instructor", whose DVDs embodied the "highest production values".

[15] The Los Angeles Times described her as one of "yoga's rock stars",[16] and her classes as feeling "more like a multicultural dance session".

[17] In 2007 Vanity Fair called her "the Madonna of the yoga world" in a desert photo shoot; the photographer, Michael O'Neill portrayed her in Dancer pose (Natarajasana) wearing bikini briefs and an outsize bead necklace, with two tigers in a featureless flat landscape.