Melisse has created a copywritten framework for Sanctum / photo: LIZ TERRY
Sanctum is a fitness experience with a cult following. Founded during the pandemic in Amsterdam, it combines elements of HIIT with kundalini yoga, martial arts, animalistic flow, breathwork and primal fitness. It’s curated to music inspired by the city’s electronic scene, enhanced by spoken word and elevated with orchestral pieces to complement mindful and meditation movements.
As Sanctum’s global rollout gains momentum – including partnerships announced with Six Senses and Auberge – Spa Business’ Liz Terry catches up with co-founder Luuk Melisse.
What’s the elevator pitch for Sanctum? It’s a cathartic, spiritual mind/body experience where we combine ancient methods and philosophies and mix them with their modern equivalents.
We created a signature workout sequence, which is a combination of high-intensity movement, kundalini yoga, martial arts and the power of the mind and created a multi-sensory immersive experience around it.
Our workouts are delivered in unique locations all over the world, such as churches, ancient ruins and beaches. The spaces are filled with candles and the fragrance of sage smudge sticks, which are used in shamanic tribes to clean spaces – it smells delicious.
Everybody wears headphones and through those, they’re hearing a rollercoaster of motivational music, soundscapes, poetry and wisdom. We also work with binaural beats and healing frequencies.
Tell us about your instructors I have a background in theatre, so we often have dancers and actors on our team.
This is because I can train people how to move, but the magic we seek comes from them being an inspiration and being gifted in storytelling and this makes the role ideal for people who’ve trained in the creative arts.
We call our instructors guides because they don’t tell people what to do. I’ve created a signature framework – which we teach in an intensive three-week programme – and they then build on this by sharing their own personal, authentic stories.
People don’t remember the number of squats they did, but they remember a personal story or advice about letting go or a dive into spirituality. This is the magic of Sanctum.
Music is a key part of Sanctum – tell us more We’re the world’s first movement class to incorporate sonic branding. This has been created with Myndstream – which is part of the company that does music for Stranger Things and Bridgerton – and we use it in our classes and online.
We create classes where the storytelling, the music and the movement come together in one experience.
What’s the science behind the headphones? Berkeley University researched why people cry more on a plane when watching a movie with headphones than when they watch it on TV and found that when people listen through headphones, their brain perceives the sound as though it’s their own voice and this heightens their emotions.
This means that when people are in my class, I have a conversation with each of them inside their heads. That’s what makes it so intimate.
What’s special about Sanctum’s approach? Our main goal is emotional release and to alter body frequencies. We believe people experience by doing, so we don’t over-explain.
Tomorrow, for example, I’m doing a class around love. It will include an intro talk accompanied by a soundscape at 528 Hz, which is the frequency of love and kundalini heart openings to activate the energy centres in the body – but I don’t spell out these steps. Part of the magic is bringing a number of elements together for people to find out things themselves.
What’s your personal story? I used to be a dancer, my mum was very spiritual and my dad is a business guy. I brought those elements together and started travelling the world to acquire more knowledge of spirituality and different philosophies.
I enjoyed discovering practices and beliefs that are thousands of years old, such as kundalini yoga and qi gong, that work with body energy and I began to weave these into a new modality.
Doing it, I felt the release that I had as a dancer because we use our body as a vessel to express ourselves.
I started Sanctum as a mindful fitness concept, however, I now realise it’s more of a ritual. The community aspect has also emerged as the main pillar.
We live in a world with more than 7 billion people, yet loneliness is one of our biggest diseases. Sanctum has, very organically, become a safe space where people can laugh and cry and be themselves but with each other.
Where can people experience your classes? We started in Amsterdam and host daily classes in the most beautiful churches and other spiritual spaces. Earlier this year, we launched our sessions in London.
The US is very much on our radar for 2025 and the rest of Europe is also in our sights.
What rates do you charge for your sessions? In London, £40 (US$52, €48) a class and in Amsterdam €25 (US$27, £21) – it’s a different market and very competitive.
We want more people to be able to experience it, so we don’t want to make it too expensive. Our private retreats are more high-end.
Tell us about the retreats We work with hotels to create three or four-night retreats which have daily Sanctum experiences at their core.
We focus on nature and use the story of the place in the class, so we might do them on a beach in Ibiza or in the ruins of Rome, where we create classes based around the Roman gods.
We partner with holistic experts to deliver wellbeing with an edge – for example, we might do a cacao ceremony or use a DJ who creates music by tapping into the electrical impulses in plants.
We also work with experts in energy and integration, such as breathwork and sound healing. Then there are social elements as well as a focus on stillness – organising things such as journaling workshops.
When we create a retreat, we want to take people through all the spectrums – high energy, low energy, going within themselves and reaching out to others.
Who are your retreat partners? In Europe, we’ve collaborated with Six Senses in Ibiza and Switzerland and we also took part in the Soneva Soul Festival in the Maldives in October. In the US, we’ve collaborated with Auberge and delivered four retreats there in 2024.
What do they cost? It depends on the property, but as a guide, they’re priced between €3,500 (US$3,845, £2,935) to €5,000 (US$5,492, £4,194) for four days.
You’re also doing mega events... Our biggest event concept – called the Frequency Festival – sees 2,000 people taking part over 2.5 hours, so the energy is off the charts. We’ve just held festivals at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam and The Beams in London.
What are your dreams for the business? We want to make Sanctum a global movement to help people get in touch with themselves and others in order to live their best life and make the right choices.
We really need this in the world right now. We need more love and connection.
Often, when I leave a fitness class in a gym, I leave stressed because it’s about the ‘beach body’, it’s about ‘bigger biceps’. It’s very aggressive and that is what we really didn’t want to do when we were creating Sanctum.
We’re a disrupter and we’re always trying to work out how we can create something different.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2024 issue 4
Editor's letter: Pleasure time
It’s time to make ‘pleasure health’ the new ‘play’ to realise the true value of the wellness sector, says Katie Barnes
Spa people: Luuk Melisse
Sanctum's co-founder Luuk Melisse on going global with the unique, spiritual workout that originated in Amsterdam
Interview: Dean Kowarski
Virgin Active is transforming its gym business with 230 sites and 1.2 million members into a social wellness brand. The CEO reveals more details to Liz Terry
First person: Steamy situation
Cassandra Cavanah is moved to tears (and also a little nervous) as she joins hundreds of near-naked heat enthusiasts at this year's Aufguss World Championships
Promotion: TechnoAlpin: In touch
Sara Brenninger talks
to wellness expert
Alina Hernandez
about the power of
real snow to create
immersive touchless
wellness experiences
Interview: Fabian Dolman
How can operators make a successful business out of aufguss programmes? Thermen Resort's CEO gives some tips
Sponsored: Best of both
Alina Hernandez, Gharieni Group advisory board member, explains how Metawell – its portfolio of tech-forward mind/body technologies – is right on time for the next era of wellness
Sponsored: Elevate your business with EGYM
Transform your business with fully connected, personalised and data-powered solutions that drive results
for members, trainers and businesses
Sponsored: Outstanding in its field
RKF Luxury Linen has had a stellar year in 2024, hitting new standards of excellence with a raft of certifications
Promotion: Rest and repeat
Starpool is drawing on science, innovation and equilibrium to offer the industry’s leading recovery solutions
Sponsored: Iyashi Dôme's Oteire
Modern consumers demand solutions that blend cutting-edge technology with proven results, and Iyashi Dôme is rising to the challenge by redefining industry standards
First person: Sparkling Water
Mary Bemis is one of the first to visit the stunning new Sacred River Spa at Four Seasons Bali at Sayan
The MSpa Oslo series is a perennial bestseller in global markets. With innovative
engineering and premium performance, this completely portable spa line-up is expertly
designed to meet the needs of customers worldwide. [more...]
Melisse has created a copywritten framework for Sanctum / photo: LIZ TERRY
Sanctum is a fitness experience with a cult following. Founded during the pandemic in Amsterdam, it combines elements of HIIT with kundalini yoga, martial arts, animalistic flow, breathwork and primal fitness. It’s curated to music inspired by the city’s electronic scene, enhanced by spoken word and elevated with orchestral pieces to complement mindful and meditation movements.
As Sanctum’s global rollout gains momentum – including partnerships announced with Six Senses and Auberge – Spa Business’ Liz Terry catches up with co-founder Luuk Melisse.
What’s the elevator pitch for Sanctum? It’s a cathartic, spiritual mind/body experience where we combine ancient methods and philosophies and mix them with their modern equivalents.
We created a signature workout sequence, which is a combination of high-intensity movement, kundalini yoga, martial arts and the power of the mind and created a multi-sensory immersive experience around it.
Our workouts are delivered in unique locations all over the world, such as churches, ancient ruins and beaches. The spaces are filled with candles and the fragrance of sage smudge sticks, which are used in shamanic tribes to clean spaces – it smells delicious.
Everybody wears headphones and through those, they’re hearing a rollercoaster of motivational music, soundscapes, poetry and wisdom. We also work with binaural beats and healing frequencies.
Tell us about your instructors I have a background in theatre, so we often have dancers and actors on our team.
This is because I can train people how to move, but the magic we seek comes from them being an inspiration and being gifted in storytelling and this makes the role ideal for people who’ve trained in the creative arts.
We call our instructors guides because they don’t tell people what to do. I’ve created a signature framework – which we teach in an intensive three-week programme – and they then build on this by sharing their own personal, authentic stories.
People don’t remember the number of squats they did, but they remember a personal story or advice about letting go or a dive into spirituality. This is the magic of Sanctum.
Music is a key part of Sanctum – tell us more We’re the world’s first movement class to incorporate sonic branding. This has been created with Myndstream – which is part of the company that does music for Stranger Things and Bridgerton – and we use it in our classes and online.
We create classes where the storytelling, the music and the movement come together in one experience.
What’s the science behind the headphones? Berkeley University researched why people cry more on a plane when watching a movie with headphones than when they watch it on TV and found that when people listen through headphones, their brain perceives the sound as though it’s their own voice and this heightens their emotions.
This means that when people are in my class, I have a conversation with each of them inside their heads. That’s what makes it so intimate.
What’s special about Sanctum’s approach? Our main goal is emotional release and to alter body frequencies. We believe people experience by doing, so we don’t over-explain.
Tomorrow, for example, I’m doing a class around love. It will include an intro talk accompanied by a soundscape at 528 Hz, which is the frequency of love and kundalini heart openings to activate the energy centres in the body – but I don’t spell out these steps. Part of the magic is bringing a number of elements together for people to find out things themselves.
What’s your personal story? I used to be a dancer, my mum was very spiritual and my dad is a business guy. I brought those elements together and started travelling the world to acquire more knowledge of spirituality and different philosophies.
I enjoyed discovering practices and beliefs that are thousands of years old, such as kundalini yoga and qi gong, that work with body energy and I began to weave these into a new modality.
Doing it, I felt the release that I had as a dancer because we use our body as a vessel to express ourselves.
I started Sanctum as a mindful fitness concept, however, I now realise it’s more of a ritual. The community aspect has also emerged as the main pillar.
We live in a world with more than 7 billion people, yet loneliness is one of our biggest diseases. Sanctum has, very organically, become a safe space where people can laugh and cry and be themselves but with each other.
Where can people experience your classes? We started in Amsterdam and host daily classes in the most beautiful churches and other spiritual spaces. Earlier this year, we launched our sessions in London.
The US is very much on our radar for 2025 and the rest of Europe is also in our sights.
What rates do you charge for your sessions? In London, £40 (US$52, €48) a class and in Amsterdam €25 (US$27, £21) – it’s a different market and very competitive.
We want more people to be able to experience it, so we don’t want to make it too expensive. Our private retreats are more high-end.
Tell us about the retreats We work with hotels to create three or four-night retreats which have daily Sanctum experiences at their core.
We focus on nature and use the story of the place in the class, so we might do them on a beach in Ibiza or in the ruins of Rome, where we create classes based around the Roman gods.
We partner with holistic experts to deliver wellbeing with an edge – for example, we might do a cacao ceremony or use a DJ who creates music by tapping into the electrical impulses in plants.
We also work with experts in energy and integration, such as breathwork and sound healing. Then there are social elements as well as a focus on stillness – organising things such as journaling workshops.
When we create a retreat, we want to take people through all the spectrums – high energy, low energy, going within themselves and reaching out to others.
Who are your retreat partners? In Europe, we’ve collaborated with Six Senses in Ibiza and Switzerland and we also took part in the Soneva Soul Festival in the Maldives in October. In the US, we’ve collaborated with Auberge and delivered four retreats there in 2024.
What do they cost? It depends on the property, but as a guide, they’re priced between €3,500 (US$3,845, £2,935) to €5,000 (US$5,492, £4,194) for four days.
You’re also doing mega events... Our biggest event concept – called the Frequency Festival – sees 2,000 people taking part over 2.5 hours, so the energy is off the charts. We’ve just held festivals at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam and The Beams in London.
What are your dreams for the business? We want to make Sanctum a global movement to help people get in touch with themselves and others in order to live their best life and make the right choices.
We really need this in the world right now. We need more love and connection.
Often, when I leave a fitness class in a gym, I leave stressed because it’s about the ‘beach body’, it’s about ‘bigger biceps’. It’s very aggressive and that is what we really didn’t want to do when we were creating Sanctum.
We’re a disrupter and we’re always trying to work out how we can create something different.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2024 issue 4
Editor's letter: Pleasure time
It’s time to make ‘pleasure health’ the new ‘play’ to realise the true value of the wellness sector, says Katie Barnes
Spa people: Luuk Melisse
Sanctum's co-founder Luuk Melisse on going global with the unique, spiritual workout that originated in Amsterdam
Interview: Dean Kowarski
Virgin Active is transforming its gym business with 230 sites and 1.2 million members into a social wellness brand. The CEO reveals more details to Liz Terry
First person: Steamy situation
Cassandra Cavanah is moved to tears (and also a little nervous) as she joins hundreds of near-naked heat enthusiasts at this year's Aufguss World Championships
Promotion: TechnoAlpin: In touch
Sara Brenninger talks
to wellness expert
Alina Hernandez
about the power of
real snow to create
immersive touchless
wellness experiences
Interview: Fabian Dolman
How can operators make a successful business out of aufguss programmes? Thermen Resort's CEO gives some tips
Sponsored: Best of both
Alina Hernandez, Gharieni Group advisory board member, explains how Metawell – its portfolio of tech-forward mind/body technologies – is right on time for the next era of wellness
Sponsored: Elevate your business with EGYM
Transform your business with fully connected, personalised and data-powered solutions that drive results
for members, trainers and businesses
Sponsored: Outstanding in its field
RKF Luxury Linen has had a stellar year in 2024, hitting new standards of excellence with a raft of certifications
Promotion: Rest and repeat
Starpool is drawing on science, innovation and equilibrium to offer the industry’s leading recovery solutions
Sponsored: Iyashi Dôme's Oteire
Modern consumers demand solutions that blend cutting-edge technology with proven results, and Iyashi Dôme is rising to the challenge by redefining industry standards
First person: Sparkling Water
Mary Bemis is one of the first to visit the stunning new Sacred River Spa at Four Seasons Bali at Sayan
A new survey of UK and international spa practitioners shows that stress, burnout and
wellbeing concerns have caused one in three respondents to consider leaving the industry.
The UK's four Chief Medical Officers have published a refreshed edition of Physical activity
guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report, updating the evidence that underpins the nation's
physical activity recommendations and placing greater emphasis on strength, balance, reducing
sedentary behaviour and, for the first time, supporting people taking weight loss medications.
Anna Bjurstam has left her role as Wellness Pioneer at Six Senses Hotels and Resorts and
launched a new wellness, longevity and “consciousness consultancy” called Wahayla.
Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere, has opened today (10 July) in the Northwest of England
with a
1,715sq m Fairmont Spa that has been designed using a ‘Wellness without Walls’
concept.
Wellness hotels generating less than US$1 million (€932,700, £785,200) – or 10 per cent of
total revenue from wellness and leisure – recorded the strongest RevPAR and TRevPAR growth
in 2025 across categories when compared with 2024, according to the latest Wellness Real
Estate Report by RLA Global, produced in partnership with P and L benchmarking firm HotStats.
Lefay Resorts, the portfolio of two luxury wellness properties in Italy, has added emotional
dance classes and group cold plunge sessions in response to market demand for social
connection.
Aditya Saluja, an industry leader in luxury wellness hospitality, has been
appointed as
commercial director of spa and wellness for the spa management division of
Minor Hotels,
MSpa International.
The MSpa Oslo series is a perennial bestseller in global markets. With innovative
engineering and premium performance, this completely portable spa line-up is expertly
designed to meet the needs of customers worldwide. [more...]
