About Alchemy of Movement
Alchemy is the magical transformation of matter.
In our community, the Alchemy of Movement is the magic of how dance transforms our spirit, energy, and body. For some, it’s the transformation that hypes them up and gives them the extra kick they need to get through the week. For others, it’s a physical transformation of the body through physical fitness, strength and flexibility. And for so many, it’s a transformation of the mind or spirit that comes from freeing the body and getting lost in the music.
What is Alchemy of Movement?
Alchemy is a dance and dance-fitness studio created for adults who love to move and groove to music but who don’t care about looking or being perfect and who don’t want a super competitive or intimidating environment. Most of our dancers (and actually many of our teachers) haven’t been formally trained in dance—or didn’t start until much later in life. We just invite you to come as you are, have fun, grow if you want to, or just sink into the music and forget the world around you.
What's the community like?
One of the things we love most about the Alchemy community is that we completely embrace you when you come in the first time - and every time you come back. Teachers are genuinely excited to see new faces. They introduce themselves to new dancers and really dig into getting to know the participants (it’s usually quite difficult to get people to leave!).
The dancers themselves, because they felt the same warmth when they started, also reach out to you if you’re new. It’s just kind of become a family that is excited to grow because… the more people, the more love! Instead of that vibe of “oh there’s a new person… they better not take my spot,” there’s this… “hey new person! Want to go grab coffee afterwards? I’d love to make a new friend!” kind of vibe instead.
Our dancers range from about age 16 to 75, and there isn’t a class that’s “all youngin’s” or all “vets.” Some of our highest intensity classes still have people moving into their 60’s.
Check out our people of Alchemy page to see what some of our amazing dancers are doing!
Alchemy in the Community
We love getting out to the surrounding local Boulder area to support local businesses, connect with other local artists, fund raise and just spread the love of dance.
Photo by Susan France at the Boulder Weekly
Inspire Boulder
December 2019
Inspire Boulder was our first formal performance we’ve ever hosted. Our brand new new troupes performed and we invited several other local dance studios to come and do a few pieces. The goal was to inspire the people of Boulder with movement and dance. It was a hit! It certainly ended up being a much larger event than we anticipated and of course learned much from the experience. It was such a blast to dance in community with others! It was also one of our last big events before COVID.
Good people, good times, good memories.
Flash Mobs
Flash mobs are such a fun way to get out there and bring dance and joy to the community! We’ve done a few in our years, they’re always some of our favorite memories.
Dance Jams
Pre-Covid, every Friday after Thanksgiving and New Years Day, we held dance jams. They were sweaty, packed-house, 2-hour class where all our teachers came together and put on a super fun, jamming class with the community. Proceeds benefit other local non-profits doing good things in the community. The last few years we donated to Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center and Intercambio. In 2017, we held a large Zumba fundraiser with other instructors in town to raise money for hurricane relief.
Alchemy in the News
We are so honored to be featured in a few really great publications. Thank you to everyone involved, we are grateful for our amazing community that makes Alchemy a news-worthy place!
Denver News 7
5 months into COVID
We were honored to be interviewed by Denver News 7’s Elizabeth Ruiz in this story about how we were managing the challenges of COVID as a small business and dance/fitness studio. Check out the full article here.
BAND
Spring 2020
When we first closed in mid-March during the COVID pandemic, we hopped on to this new social platform called Band. It was a great place to post updates, get in contact with our dancers, send links for virtual classes, and let them know about changes that were happening. We had so many people join up that BAND actually reached out to us to do an article on how we were managing the finances of all of it. Here’s the full article!
Voyage Denver
October 2019
Our owner, Ashley Patchen, was honored to be featured in this interview by Voyage Denver. It’s a story about local businesses and what their women CEOs are bringing to the community.
Photos by Susan France at the Boulder Weekly
Meet the Owner.
Hello and welcome! I'm Ashley, owner of the Alchemy of Movement. I've been running this studio since May of 2018. Before that I was renting space here to teach my classes independently. I have been teaching dance fitness classes since 2011, and when the opportunity to take over Alchemy and leave my job as a high school math teacher, I leapt at the opportunity.
What dance means to me.
Dance has always been my one true passion. People always ask me what I like to do living in Colorado, my answer is dance. They proceed to ask "well yeah, but why'd you move here? Skiing? Hiking? Climbing? I usually laugh and explain to them that I hate being cold, so no... I don't do any of the "normal" Colorado activities. I just love to dance. Dance gives me a space where I can be free. When my body and the music connect, I just get lost in the moment. I forget stresses, anxiety, politics, finances. It's an outlet for anger, joy, sorrow, when I leave a class my body is happy it's gotten a great workout and my heart is happy that I've relieved all of that stuff. It's my way to connect with other people and other cultures. I find so much beauty in musicality and the unique rhythms and styles that have evolved through history. When I'm dancing I feel alive.
What the Alchemy community means to me.
This community is my family. Of course, that is not to discount my partner here or my family in New York, who I love dearly, but I see these people every day. I see them at their best and at their worst. We've worked through some really tough stuff together. I truly believe that it is because of our strong community that we haven't had to close due to COVID. People have financially and emotionally supported us as if we were their own flesh and blood. Fitness is great and all, but in a pandemic and when the world feels like it's crashing down, you need connections, you need a place to feel joy, a place to escape to, a place where you can get away from social media and just be present with other humans.