DENVER — After struggling to find inclusive yoga spaces, Ali Duncan turned her personal experience into a community-driven solution, opening Urban Sanctuary in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood as a studio designed to welcome people of all backgrounds while fostering conversation, healing and connection.

Duncan, a former police officer in Fort Collins, said her journey began when she traveled to India and Egypt to study yoga. After moving to Denver in 2016, she expected to find studios that reflected diverse communities but instead encountered the opposite.

“I thought for sure there would be spaces welcoming to Black and brown people on the mats, and there was not,” Duncan said. “So instead of complaining about it, I decided to create Urban Sanctuary in Five Points.”

Duncan said opening the studio was not part of her original plan but grew out of necessity.

“It’s different when you look different from other people when everybody around you, including the teachers don’t represent you, and there’s always microaggressions even when people aren’t mindful of it or are mindful of it,” Duncan explained.

Her experiences practicing yoga in predominantly white spaces shaped the studio’s mission.

“It’s always nice to have people who represent you, look like you, who understand what it’s like to be you as you move through the world,” Duncan said.

Urban Sanctuary now employs about 20 teachers, the majority of whom are Black or brown, and offers classes designed to highlight and support those communities. Duncan emphasized the importance of representation and education.

“This is the space for them to go to be in community, do yoga, learn that it came from people who looked like us,” she said.

While rooted in inclusivity, Duncan said the studio is open to everyone.

“Everybody is welcomed — doesn’t matter what race, gender,” she said. “We have classes for the queer community. We honor every type of person that wants to show up and practice on their mat and be in community.”

Beyond physical movement, Duncan said Urban Sanctuary prioritizes conversation and emotional healing.

“You’re not just there to move your body. It’s not just an exercise,” she said. “It’s everybody moving into that space to move through their own trauma, however that’s showing up, and so I feel when it’s structured as like you’re here, check in, go to mat, practice and you leave, that’s so disconnecting, whereas checking in with the students, how are you? Let’s talk.”

She added that the studio intentionally creates space to address real-world issues.

“A lot of studios like to separate — you’re here for yoga, we’re not here to talk about politics,” Duncan said. “In our studio, we talk about it all.”

The studio hosts coaching classes focused on emotional wellness and has held racial justice conversations for the past three years, bringing together Black, brown and white participants to discuss anti-racism.

Linda Dixon, who began attending in 2017, described the space as transformative.

“It’s really been a very loving place, nurturing place,” Dixon said.

Dixon said Duncan has given her a place to be both a student and a teacher. 

“She is very open to so much, and she invites you to open yourself up,” Dixon said. “In fact, I was able to start my own class from my background.”

On Fridays, Dixon hosts a ’60s movement and dance class.

Duncan has since expanded, opening a second location across the street and offering online classes. In 2022, she purchased the building that now houses the studio — a space she later learned her father once frequented as a pool hall. Even before being a pool hall, it was a mortuary, run by a descendant of Frederick Douglass.

For Duncan, the mission remains centered on creating safety and connection.

“Just be a safe space for those who are moving through whatever they’re moving through,” she said.