NAME: Bowyer, Bob

BIRTH DATE/LOCATION:
17 March 1947, Los Angeles

DEATH DATE/LOCATION:
10 August 1992, Roosevelt Hospital, Manhattan, age 45

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Bob Bowyer in his Faux Pas de Trois, with Jo-Ann Bruggeman, left, and Marianne Claire, right.
Photo: Francette Levieux

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  • identification & bio
  • key contact
  • human repositories
  • video documentation
  • photographic documentation
    		•
  • movement notation
  • production materials
  • oral history
  • personal papers
  • immediate needs
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  • overview of works
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    IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
    Bob Bowyer was a dancer and choreographer of a distinctly comic mold. While working as an actor in Los Angeles, Bowyer began training at Harkness School of Ballet. He learned very quickly and was hired by Lotte Goslar's Pantomime Circus and the Norman Walker Dance Company. Bowyer then founded the American Ballet Comedy with his dance partner Jo-Ann Bruggemann and thereafter worked primarily as a choreographer and dancer. According to Bruggemann, the ideas for their comic choreography were Bowyer's. Bruggemann simply helped Bowyer to realize them. Bowyer graduated from Hollywood High School in Los Angeles, California, and attended the University of Southern California. He trained in theater and dance with Pasadena Playhouse, Harkness House for Ballet Arts, the Martha Graham School, Dance Theater of Harlem, and May O'Donnell. He received two choreography grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He died from AIDS-related complications.

    KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
    At his death, Bowyer was survived by his companion, Walter Maas, and his mother, Merle Hofschire of Los Angeles, who is unlisted.

    Walter Maas
    500 E. 77th Street
    New York, NY 10162
    212-734-6053 (home)
    212-288-9558 (fax)
    walmaas@aol.com

    Jo-Ann Bruggemann-Victor, American Ballet Comedy co-founder
    630 First Avenue, Suite 30C
    New York, NY 10016
    212-725-0930
    212-725-1993 (fax)
    pandia13@aol.com

    Bruggemann-Victor believes that the majority of Bowyer's materials would be held by Jeffrey Mayer, who worked for American Ballet Comedy as a volunteer lawyer from Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Mayer's wife, Nancy Diamond, worked as manager for the company—officially known as the Hieronymous Foundation, Inc. Bruggemann-Victor has not been able to track down Mayer, but as of the late 1980s she believes he worked for Goldman Sachs and lived in New Jersey.

    HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
    (name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
    Jo-Ann Bruggemann-Victor
    (see above)

    Marianne (Claire) Roberts, dancer
    812 Hoyt Avenue
    Everett, WA 98201
    425-339-2293
    mcr323@worldnet.att.net

    VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    Bruggemann-Victor holds three Sony V-30h videotapes, which require a special machine for viewing, as well as two poor-quality VHS videos: a full concert performed in New Jersey from the late 1970s, and excerpts from a television special created for a station in Cologne, Germany. These are in storage in Bruggemann-Victor's apartment. She also has two unidentified films and an 8 mm film Bruggemann-Victor and Bowyer made together called Crime in the Streets.

    In addition, the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library holds the following videotape:

    Bowyer & Bruggeman (1977)—taped at the TAG Foundation during the New York DanceFest at the Delacorte (4 September 1977); the pieces on the tape are: La Domestique Romantique, Drip Comes to Hang, and The Black Cockroach Pas de Deux. Bowyer made the choreography and dances on the tape with his partner, Jo-Ann Bruggemann, and dancers Marianne Claire and Scott Bryant; 25 min.; call number MGZIC 5-433.

    PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    Bruggemann-Victor holds approximately fifty photographs, including publicity and performance shots. These are stored in two boxes at her home. Marianne (Claire) Roberts has organized a large album, which remains in her possession, containing publicity and performance photographs from 1977 to 1983.

    MOVEMENT NOTATION
    (location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
    None. All from memory and video.

    PRODUCTION MATERIALS
    (scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
    The company's stage manager once had these materials. Bruggemann-Victor doesn't know where they would have ended up.

    ORAL HISTORY:
    None identified.

    PERSONAL PAPERS
    (location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
    Posters from the American Ballet Comedy hang on Bruggemann-Victor's walls. Programs and clippings are in Bruggemann-Victor's two storage boxes. Her intention is to make an album from these materials. Marianne Roberts has publicity and performance photographs, programs, reviews, articles, and posters from 1977 to 1983, all organized in a large album.

    The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library holds two files of programs, call number MGZB.

    IMMEDIATE NEEDS
    (archival assistance? storage? other?):
    None identified.

    OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
    Bruggemann's name was sometimes rendered as JoAnn Bruggeman by publicists.

    Bruggemann-Victor and Bowyer had a bad ending, and Bruggemann sued Bowyer. As a result, she did not speak with Bowyer for the last eight years of his life and doesn't have all the video material. Bruggemann-Victor has tried to contact the lawyer who represented Bowyer and she has not been able to find him. Bruggemann-Victor believes that Mayer and Walter Maas have additional videotapes.

    LIST OR OVERVIEW OF WORKS
    (title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):
    This is an incomplete list drawn from the printed program of a performance 11 February 1984 presented by the Cadet Fine Arts Forum, augmented by Jo-Ann Bruggemann-Victor's memory and notes from Marianne Roberts:

    Menuetto (1974)—music by Mozart; duet

    Jacques & Jeannine (1976)—music by Marvin Hamlisch; duet about a tacky Las Vegas pas de deux team

    A Greek Tale (1976)—music by Bernard Herrman; trio; Martha Graham parody

    La Domestique Romantique (1977)—music by Rachmoninoff; trio

    Black Cockroach Pas de Deux (1978)—music by Louis Gottschalk; trio

    Dance to the Moonlight Sonata (1979)—music by Beethoven; duet

    Drip Comes to Hang (1979)—music by Fats Waller; trio; Twyla Tharp parody

    Dos Solos Modernos (1979)—music by Puccini; two solos

    The Gangster Ballet (1979)—music by Richard Rogers; trio

    Pas de Trois pour la Psychologie Contemporaine (1979)—music by Rachmaninoff; trio

    Opening (1980)—quartet set to a musical medley

    All That Pelvis (1981)—music by Kander and Ebb; Bob Fosse send-up; 6 dancers

    A Lulu in her Tutu (1981)—music by Tchaikovsky

    The Molotov Brothers (1980)—music by Johannes Brahms; duet

    Duet for Mating Organisms (1980)—music by Samuel Barber; duet

    Baby Bobby's Backyard (1980)—music by Jules Massenet; quartet

    Faux Pas de Trois (1980)—music by Charles Gounod; trio

    America on Broadway (1981)—music by Harry Warren; for 6 dancers

    The Remembrance Waltz (1981)—music by Chopin; quartet

    Les Jazz Chics (1982)—music by Holland, Dozier & Holland; quartet

    La Stampa de Feeta (1982)—music by Ernesto Lecuona; duet

    The Buttercups (1982)—music by Patti LaBelle; for 7 dancers

    Smile (1983)—music by Steven Sondheim (Send in the Clowns); trio

    Funny Feet (1987)—a show, directed Off Broadway

    The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1992)—a three-act ballet which was in progress at the time of Bowyer's death

    BIBLIOGRAPHY:

    • New York Times. 1992. "Bob Bowyer; Choreographer, 45" (14 August).
         		 
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