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Elizabeth "Betsy" Wetzig Page 2

By 1975, Betsy had received a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographic Fellowship as well as other grants which required her to make lectures and mini-workshops, along with the company performances. A copy of a Tampa, Fl newspaper article about one of these lectures was sent to Dr. Alex Lotas, a Jungian and learning style expert in Detroit. He recognized that the mind/body characteristics of the patterns which Betsy was describing were the characteristics of the Jungian personality types and learning styles. On his first phone call, Betsy started with, “No I have never studied anything about Jung’s work”, and ended four hours later with, “Wow, it’s a one on one match”. Thus began Betsy’s work on learning styles and the creative process in learning. This work was further enhanced by Dr. Bernice McCarthy’s McDonalds Conference on Learning Styles and Left-Right Brain Mode Research. Here Betsy had the opportunity to be introduced to the brain mode research by Dr. Joseph Bogan, who also recognized the pattern characteristics and movement qualities as having a one on one relationship to the brain mode research.

Building on this learning style and creativity work in Detroit with Dr. Lotas and Dr. Elsie Ritzenheim in the 1980’s, Betsy was able to join with Dr. Patricia Pinciotti at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania creating Full Potential Learning in the early 1990’s. This educational framework uses the movement qualities of the patterns to recognize which style and brain processes a child is using in the classroom, and takes advantage of the child’s creative processes and movement to enhance learning and teaching. It was at this time that Betsy began using the pattern terms Thrust, Shape, Swing and Hang for the ease of recognition of movement quality by teachers as well as the positive association with each term.

Betsy was now living in Allentown, Pennsylvania, had two children and was still performing improvisation, choreographing, and teaching at Cedar Crest College. Through her private clients using the patterns to improve their movement she came in touch with Trager® body workers and was asked to present for the East Coast Trager Conference. Here she met and began to work with Jean Hopkins to integrate and make a tool of the patterns for body workers, and movement practitioners. Out of one of these workshops on the patterns she met Carol Cassio, a Laban expert, and began a study with her and Peter Madden on the relationship of the patterns to Laban’s work. This Full Potential movement work was further expanded by Betsy’s integrative work with experts from Feldenkrais, St. John Neuromuscular Therapy, Hanna Somatic Education and Hellerwork, as well as experts in body disciplines such as Tai Chi Chuan, Yoga, and Pilates. She was especially assisted in her work with Pilates by Carole Amend director of Bodies Mind and Aim Academy for Somatic Integration. Along with Gene Miller and Penny Rhodes she began the Mind-Body Collaborative partnership and presented workshops nationally to such groups as The American Massage Therapy Association, The American Dance Therapy Association, The Congress on Research in Dance, and The International Alliance for Learning. Nationally and internationally, practitioners of bodywork modalities and movement disciplines use her work in an integrative environment.

Her work is also used by Cynthia Winton-Henry’s Interplay an international organization of improvisational dancers, neuro-linguistic researchers and educators, and business consultants. Betsy’s creative, learning style and movement modality work are beginning to meet in surprising ways. When Jean Hopkins was giving a Trager® workshop in Egypt she was asked to give a presentation on the Wetzig Coordination Patterns™ by people who had heard of it through neuro-linguistic and learning style work in Italy.

Betsy is included in Mirka Knaster’s book Discovering the Body’s Wisdom, Constance Schrader’s A Sense Of Dance: Exploring Your Movement Potential, Anne Gilbert's book "Brain-Compatible Dance Education and other articles, and research papers using her work. She has recently completed work on a book a book for business titled Move to Greatness: Four Essential Energies for a Whole and Balanced Leadership that she co-authored with Dr. Ginny Whitelaw an executive coach with CDR International and director of her own company Focus Leadership International.

Betsy Wetzig | Wetzig Bio Page 2 | Wetzig Bio Page 3

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Betsy in "Hang"