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Beth Kalish-Weiss was first referred to me by the American Dance Therapy Association. Later, I was fortunate to study with her at Immaculate Heart College. I found her to be extremely knowledgeable and exacting-she asked the best of her students and we found ourselves transformed from the inside out. Today, years later, I find Beth to be warm, personable, charged with humor, and evocative stories. The strong sense of meaning which her life holds is evidenced by its effect on others; then as now, her abundant enthusiasm inspires us to create our very best.
Kalish-Weiss has been awarded several grants, one to develop the first clinical dance/movement therapy program with schizophrenics in Pennsylvania in 1961, and another to investigate research for her dissertation. She has published over a dozen articles, from her first, “On Being Something Other than Mother and Being Mother, Too” (1962), to her most recent, “Born Blind and Visually Handicapped Infants: Movement Psychotherapy and Assessment” (1988). Kalish-Weiss co-authored the book,Behavior Rating Instrument for Autistic and Other Atypical Children, published in 1976, with B. Ruttenberg, C. Wenar, and E. Wolf.
She has always been an active participant of ADTA. She helped found the Association in 1966, served as president in 1972, and was appointed a Board of Trustee for the Marian Chace Memorial Fund in 1980. She is a frequent speaker at ADTA conferences, local ADTA workshops, and other conferences world-wide.
Throughout her productive and spirited career, she has found continuity in movement and change. An alive curiosity and a far-reaching search for meaning continue to provide direction for her richly evolved life.
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Planert-Geffen, C. An interview with Beth Kalish-Weiss. Am J Dance Ther 12, 9–18 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844311
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844311