Dr. Ashley Elliott delivers a creative movement performance set to Yebba’s ‘October Sky,’ dedicating the piece to her recently deceased aunt. She briefly explains how creative movement — the authentic expression of lived experience through the body and mind — informs her clinical therapy practice before performing.
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Transcript
[01:30:23] Is she going to need this?
[01:30:25] I’m going to need this.
[01:30:27] You’re going to need this?
[01:30:27] Yes.
[01:30:27] Yes.
[01:30:27] four seconds thank you for remembering i’m tiny hi everybody i’m dr elliott um you gotta go with
[01:30:36] me everywhere if you won’t give me that intro that’s dope so i love seeing how speak your truth
[01:30:41] has grown um it’s just amazing to see thank you tyler for everything that you have done i always
[01:30:49] embarrass him every year tyler is the reason that i’m a doctor because he was my doctoral internship
[01:30:56] supervisor years ago and he taught me how to be a great supervisor and a great person and a
[01:31:03] great clinician so thank you and he’s the only italian man to hold both of my children as babies
[01:31:11] um so i’m going to do some creative movement for you tonight and i’m not taking my earrings off
[01:31:16] because i want to fight i just don’t want to fling them off um and creative movement is
[01:31:21] something that i use in some of my therapy sessions and it can be interpreted as dance
[01:31:25] but it’s the power of the body and the mind to be the best person that’s the power of the body
[01:31:26] of letting an experience that you have gone through just move you authentically
[01:31:33] and we do an interpretation from that so I’m gonna give you my phone right you
[01:31:38] buy it you can’t do that I just need you to play a song for me it’s it’s Yeva
[01:31:45] October sky yeah yeah yeah it’s y-e-b-b hey Abby spelled backwards and the song
[01:31:56] is October sky can my daughter actually grab my phone yeah you’re gonna get paid
[01:32:02] for helping me thank you I’ve had experienced a lot of death they look
[01:32:09] cute on you yes I’ve experienced a lot of death and a lot of loss and this is a
[01:32:14] song
[01:32:15] that really resonates with me and I dedicate this to my auntie who has just
[01:32:22] left us so I’m gonna move this here unless you want me to you know you know
[01:32:27] need insurance and then I can not work
[01:32:45] well she slid down the hall in her socks and Yale come outside
[01:33:07] no no no nothing’s wrong I just happen to have a surprise
[01:33:15] yes so we fell through the door like the autumn leaves and I wrestled my brother down to his knees
[01:33:25] just to watch as her Rockets shot into the October sky
[01:33:34] there’s a picture of us
[01:33:38] and a layer of dust
[01:33:42] on the mental
[01:33:45] Right by my cigarettes that I smoked since you left
[01:33:50] Cause you said you had to fly
[01:33:52] In your October sky
[01:33:57] La-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
[01:34:00] Now I work in the city and I blend
[01:34:11] Into the crowd
[01:34:14] And the people grieve with me since the towers came down
[01:34:22] Down
[01:34:24] You could cut the pollution with a butter knife
[01:34:29] You could wake up at two and then party all night
[01:34:34] But I’m missing my mama so I’ll stand on the street and get high
[01:34:40] Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
[01:34:41] There’s a picture of us
[01:34:46] Hidden in a layer of dust
[01:34:51] On the mantel
[01:34:53] Right by my cigarettes that I smoked since you left
[01:34:59] Cause you said you had to fly
[01:35:01] In your October sky
[01:35:06] La-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
[01:35:09] La-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
[01:35:11] La-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
[01:35:14] Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
[01:35:16] And as I go back home to Memphis
[01:35:21] I remember days that I
[01:35:25] I was outside shooting rockets
[01:35:29] Almost as high
[01:35:32] High
[01:35:35] In your October
[01:35:41] In your October
[01:35:44] In your October
[01:35:48] In your October
[01:35:52] In your October sky
[01:35:57] La-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
[01:36:01] La-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
[01:36:11] Hey, give it up for her one more time, y’all.