Betsy Baytos Bio
As Illustrator, Character Concept and Product Designer, Film Maker, and Character Movement Consultant, Betsy has had a 30-year career featuring a unique combination of talent and expertise in the visual arts.
An award winning performer, expert, and historian on Eccentric Dance and character movement, Betsy has imprinted her background into her work as a Disney feature animator and choreographer, including: The Rescuers, Pete’s Dragon, The Fox and the Hound, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, The Emperor’s New Groove, and The Princess and the Frog while touring extensively as a Disney spokesperson.
Betsy’s character ideas and flexibility soon became the “Betsy Bird,” a character created by Jim Henson for The Muppet Show, London, and was featured in the Muppets’ first “live” performance at the Kennedy Center. This led to Shelley Duvall’s Faerietale Theatre as choreographer and puppet design, an appearance on The Steve Allen Show and to Broadway’s Stardust as “Maurice.”
Betsy’s extraordinary expertise in blending animation and illustration brought life into her award-winning character licensing campaigns for the Coca-Cola Polar Bears, Homeland Security’s “Ready Kids,” Kurt Adler Dickens Christmas, Warner Bros., Simon & Schuster publishing, and Disney.
As a conceptual and brand designer, Betsy has a growing list of clients including the Natural History Museum, the Leisureworld Entertainment China, Body Glove footwear, John Fogerty, and Universal Studios Osaka. She has enjoyed 28 years designing Jimmy Buffett tour merchandise, and recently illustrated an animated backdrop for Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan’s arena stage show.
A two-time grant recipient from the Jerome Robbins Foundation, Betsy is a leading expert in character movement. She has consulted for Cirque Du Soleil and has taught her workshops across the globe: the Fred Astaire Conference at Oxford University, animation classes at Cal Arts and Disney Artist’s Development, UCLA, Ringling Bros. Clown College Alumni, and Universal Studios Osaka, which continue to this day.
Betsy is now producing an Eccentric Dance documentary series with several projects in development. She has recently launched her own line of custom tile and canvas prints at BetsyBaytosDesign on Etsy.
Betsy Baytos
Producer/Designer
Heavens To Betsy Productions
betsybaytos@gmail.com
www.betsybaytos.com