Our Staff
Ann Law, Founder and Executive Director
Ann Law is an improvisational dancer, choreographer/director, dance educator and arts activist. For the past twenty-four years she has cultivated thoughtful audiences and built a strong community in art activism.
“After many years of intense teaching, reflection, and research, I realized that I was sitting on information important to artists of all disciplines. Through my passions of collaboration, creativity, and experiential learning, I decided to develop an arts teaching practice that includes taking risks, supporting the space for others to create, experiencing new joys in learning, and scaffolding every moment inside lots of surprises. What better way to serve artists in their desire to become teaching artists and support them in their creative process as well.”
Bruce Kaplan, Music Director
Bruce has been pretty fanatical about music since his childhood in Miami. After shortlived study of classical guitar, he graduated to the world of garage rock in junior high, circa 1970. He dipped his feet into the world of free improvisation in the mid-eighties, participating actively in NYC’s downtown community from 1987 until moving to Chattanooga in 1990 to practice neurology. Under the spell of Appalachia, he become obsessed with playing fiddle tunes on the mandolin. He has become reacquainted with the guitar in the past few years, making a stab at learning rudiments of jazz guitar.
His programming of music at the Legs began in earnest in 1997, with a huge assist from Fletcher and George Bright. Since then, musical offerings have been increasingly diversified, with focus on three main areas: modern and traditional acoustic music, jazz, and the avant-garde. “I am increasingly interested in bringing more and more people from the community into being part of programming at Barking Legs. Consider that an invitation!”
Courtenay Cholovich, Associate Director
Courtenay Gillean Cholovich is a Chattanooga-based actor, director, producer, educator, and performance artist. She works to bring communities together in nontraditional spaces through nontraditional means - or by subverting traditional spaces and means for new purposes. Her primary focus is the generation of fresh material that highlights voices in the local community, particularly marginalized voices or stories. BFA – Acting, University of Florida; MFA – Theatre Performance, Arizona State University; EdD (Candidate) – Curriculum and Instruction, Columbus State University. www.cholovich.com / @thegoodfalconer
Dan Buck, Theater Manager
Our theatre manager Dan is a director, writer, and actor, with a long list of credits in academic and professional theater. At Barking Legs, he loves helping people make their art! As an artist, Dan finds himself most interested in theater that explores and explodes the performer/audience relationship. His production company, Tiger Leap Productions has mounted productions of Red, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, two original works, and three podcasts. He loves finding inspiration for his next project on long road trips, hikes, and in antiques stores. His wife and he reside in Chattanooga and enjoy being near their adult sons Elijah and Isaac.