The Sandbox Ensemble, Coming together for the first time in May 2024, is the meeting of dancer Benjamin Cheney, dancer and saxophonist Yali Rivlin and double bassists Betsy Soukup and Paul Erhard.

Our work as the Sandbox Ensemble moves by slowing down what culture insists we speed up. In a world organized around output and certainty, improvisation offers another logic—one rooted in listening, risk, and responsiveness. Improvisation mirrors life itself: things fall apart, something unexpected appears, and we practice coming back together. Again and again.

Rather than focusing on presentation, we foreground presence. Improvisation asks us to stay with what’s here, even when it’s uncomfortable or unclear. In doing so, it opens space for more inclusive and equitable ways of being together—ways that honor difference, adaptability, and mutual influence.