Alchemy Spinning

Alchemy Spinning ™ is an accessible, pleasurable, and powerful guided practice  that takes your body, your mind, and your spirit through a journey of self discovery, expanded consciousness, and higher potential.

Inspired on Sufi Dervishes and other whirling dances of the world, Alchemy Spinning™ makes the physical, psychological and spiritual benefits of whirling accesible to everybody.

As compared to regular, seated meditation, Alchemy Spinning™ also uses dance, movement, and contemplative whirling to induce a state of expanded consciousness. This holistic combination of inner technologies makes Alchemy Spinning™ a transformative and memorable supermindfulness practice.

Applied benefits include personal and spiritual growth, healing, self-knowledge, and enhanced capacity for innovation, leadership, artistic expression and rightful action.

Benefits

Experience an expanded state of consciousness

Unleash innovation, creativity and artistic expression

Heal traumas and conflicts

Unlock your potential for a higher way of being

Become more aware, present and embodied

Awaken joy, inner peace, and compassion towards self and others

 

It could be said that the spiral is the most important movement in the universe. Galaxies and planets trace spirals through the universe, and the genetic information on which all life depends is arranged in the spirals of DNA. Thus the universe and man’s consciousness could be seen as dynamic continuum expressed by the spiral.

Since ancient times, different peoples have used whirling dances as a way to access the ineffable wisdom of the cosmos, and its fractal manifestations in our inner world and inside each our our living cells.

The most famous of whirling dances is that of the Sufi dervishes, mystic dancers of the Middle East seeking to connect with the mysteries of the universe through their ecstatic and consciousness-expanding spinning practice.

Why do children spin and dervishes whirl? Why do we feel an irresistible urge to spin when we’re overwhelmed by joy?

Dancer and mindfulness teacher Raquel Santiago from Barcelona, Spain, believes that whirling is a super-mindfulness practice, even more powerful and beneficial than regular meditation.

“it is like a super-charged meditation”  explains Raquel – “spinning takes us right into a state of expanding consciousness, where focus, calm, creative epiphanies, insights and self-knowledge come to us effortlessly”.

Raquel founded Alchemy Spinning with the goal of making the benefits of whirling accessible to everybody. The practice combines dance, movement, breathwork and meditation, building up to a group whirling session she describes as “unforgettable”.

Studies show that whirling unlocks and activates connections between the cerebellum –the part of the brain responsible for motor development– and the upper regions of the brain that control attention, focus, reason and logic – which govern our capacity for significant thinking.

According to Raquel, no previous dance or whirling experience is necessary, and the practice is accessible to people of all ages.

“I love working with people who have never whirled before, and see them overcome with joy and gratitude when they get to spin for 30 minutes or longer, without getting dizzy” -says Raquel.

 

Teaching

Alchemy Spinning™ workshops fall under three categories:

Personal Growth

Open to anyone seeking to explore the practice ofAlchemy Spinning™ and experience its benefits, which include deepening self knowledge; unlocking insights, emotions and memories; experiencing an expanded state of consciousness and presence; and boosting awareness, joy, compassion towards self and others, and inner peace.

Innovation and Leadership

In partnership with Kumu Thrive, a San Francisco Bay Area innovation and capacity-building consultancy, we work with organizations to address their specific needs around innovation, design thinking, team building, and leadership, using Alchemy Spinning as a powerful platform that opens mind and hearts to actionable insights and possibilities.

Creativity and Inspiration

We help artists, leaders  and organizations awaken and access unprecedented creativity, playfulness and inspiration that can be turned into tangible new work right away.

Testimonial

“I have recently found in the Bay Area a phenomenal Spanish Sufi dance instructor, Raquel Boluda Santiago, and I attended one of her workshops.

As an experienced dancer I deeply admire Raquel’s reaching style and content. Her techniques beautifully blend both raw and refined aspects of human existence. With great balance and sensitivity Raquel can heal individual and/or collective traumas, release stress, fear and anxiety.(…)

I cannot recommend Alchemy Spinning workshops and classes highly enough. Go as frequently as possible. Make it as a gift to yourself.”

Cintia Cavalcante- San Francisco Examiner

(Manuel had never danced before and suffered from strong vertigo episodes. However he really wanted to challenge himself to experience whirling. He signed up for an Alchemy Spinning full-day workshop, and he whirled beautifully for 45 minutes without any dizziness or vertigo. This was his comment:)

“Thank you for encouraging me to do this Alchemy Spinning workshop with you. The preparation helped me release all my tensions and loosen up my body. I felt guided by you throughout the workshop and I didn’t experience any dizziness. Alchemy Spinning has been an intimate experience that has touched me deeply, given me an energy boost, and filled me with gratitude. I can see now that you are a great teacher”.

Manuel

Thank you Raquel for your work, for your beautiful energy and for sharing this gorgeous dance meditation with us! I experienced an amazing connection with my body, with my own center and with the Cosmos. After the workshop I felt more present, light and confident. I’m excited for more workshops!
Mariana

Thank you Raquel. Such an amazing workshop. I’m still high and feeling very open from the whole experience. Such a gift you have Raquel. Whirl on!
Bobbi

This Alchemy Spinning workshop has been a gift for my body and for my soul. Reaching a place of harmony, balance and inner peace was fantastic, and to feel my own vibration was DIVINE. It became obvious to me that we are more than mere physical bodies.
Inma

Thank you all for such a delightful day of Alchemy Spinning! And a very special thanks to you, Raquel, for your superb skills and splendid spirit in guiding us into the soul of moving meditation! I am very much looking forward to having the opportunity of whirling in wholehearted wonderment again!
Sam

Thank you for this Alchemy Spinning workshop. It was a moving meditation which has transformed me completely. I can’t wait to do it again.
Celia