Note: Bito’s final performance as Billy in the Village Theatre (Issaquah & Everett, WA) production of Billy Elliot The Musical (BETM) was at the Everett Performing Arts Center on July 30, 2016.
Debut: May 19, 2016 (Village Theatre – Issaquah, WA)
Total Performances as Billy: 21 (No partial shows)
Bito (Jacob) Gottesman was 13 years old (d.o.b. = 6-Dec-2002) upon his debut as Billy and is from Mercer Island, Washington. Mercer Island lies in Lake Washington between the cities of Seattle and Bellevue. He was in the 8th Grade at Mercer Island Middle School at the time of his first performance as Billy.
Bito began dancing at the age of five, and has studied at several dance studios in the area. When he began dancing, he concentrated on the hip hop genre of dance. He eventually branched out, even starting to take ballet when he realized “you need ballet to get the core aspect of your dancing”. Much of his dance training took place at Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle, where he studied ballet, tap and contemporary styles of dance.
Over the years, Bito has received numerous awards, including the one pictured to the right in 2010. In the picture, his dance team from Definitive Dance won first prize in their tap dance category with the number Tap for Blue Suit Boogie. It was at the Starpower Competition at the Highline Performing Arts Center.
In 2014, Bito was awarded a Future Star scholarship at the New York City Dance Alliance (NYCDA) dance competition held in Vancouver, WA.
His first performance as Billy Elliot on May 19, 2016 made him the 138th actor worldwide to debut as Billy in a non youth/school production of BETM.
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Life After Billy
2016 – Toward the end of his run in BETM, Bito’s family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia because of his father’s job. He was in a half day program at Arts Umbrella Dance Company while in Vancouver.
2017 – Bito played the role of “Young Joe Shuster” in Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics, a TV documentary series. Bito was in Episode 3 of the series which was called The Trials of Superman. It would air on AMC on 20-Nov-2017. Here is a demo reel from IMDb which includes Bito’s work on this series:
2018 – Bito took a time out from performing to concentrate on school.
2019 – When Bito’s family moved back from Canada, Bito participated as Treasurer of the International Thespian Society Gold Honor Troupe 5832 at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Washington for the 2019 to 2020 school year. Here’s a humorous video Bito created for his campaign to be Treasurer:
Credit: Video by Bito Gott
From August 9-11, 2019 he performed in the High School edition of Heathers the Musical at Seattle Children’s Theatre.
2020 – Bito was in the cast of the pre-shutdown setlist #2: The Trumpet of the Swan in Seattle from March 5-7, 2020, the winter production at Roosevelt High School.
Credit: Video by Ben Stuart
From May 21-31, he was in Disney’s High School Musical. In July, Bito performed as a featured dancer at Village Theatre in the virtual production of KIDSTAGE’s Issaquah Summer Independent, Tuck Everlasting, a professionally mentored program run by students.
2021 – On January 12, Bito played “Country Y Citizen” in Passage by Christopher Chen at Roosevelt High School Theatre. This production which “discusses imperialism, classism and other heavy issues” was live streamed. On January 13-16, Bito participated in the live stream production of Everybody, which discusses death, racism and more. He was cast in the professional production of Pirates and Roosevelt High’s High School the Musical, but both were cancelled due to Covid-19. He is cast as “Oliver” in Roosevelt High School’s Spring performance of As You Like It.
Bito is currently preparing auditions for universities. His goal is to attend a school in the US.
For more information about Bito visit:
Billy Elliot the Forum, Facebook, Picuki
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