Meet Our Team

FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Ann Law is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit arts organization CoPAC (Contemporary Performing Arts of Chattanooga) that oversees Barking Legs Theater. Her lifelong dedication to improvisational dance supports the vision and mission at Barking Legs Theater providing, a supportive space to encourage both emerging and established artists, growing thoughtful audiences, and cultivating a strong community for the performing arts.

Beginning in Southern California, at the age of four, Ann made dances in her backyard with a yardstick and her cat Panther. She continued making dances in San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, New York City and–for the last 33 years–in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She received her MA in Dance Education from UNC Greensboro and her BA in Dance from Mills College. She is also a certified Pilates instructor under Romana Kryzanowska and a Kinetic Awareness practitioner, a form of somatic education which she studied for 25 years with the founder Elaine Summers. She has received many awards, including Chattanooga’s Ruth Holmberg Arts Leadership Award, UNC Greensboro’s Distinguished Alumni Award in Dance Education, Tennessee Association of Dance Outstanding Dance Educator and Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship award.

During her time in Chattanooga, Ann has taught creative dance at Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences, movement for actors at Chattanooga State Community College, and dance at Barking Legs Theater. Her focus was on the creative process and supporting students' needs and desires to create. After years of teaching, in 2015 Ann founded Full Circle TAP (Teaching Artists Program) to support artists in their desire and quest to become teaching artists. She designed many art integration education curricula that engaged and transformed students into critical thinkers capable of social change. Full Circle TAP inspired almost 20 artists to become teaching artists in Chattanooga schools such as Woodmore Elementary, Orchard Knob Elementary and Middle Schools, Hardy Elementary, Brown Academy, Calvin Donaldson Elementary, and Dalewood Middle. Ann believes that by strengthening life skills through the creative process, the experience of the arts directly relates to academic achievement. 

Whether through CoPAC projects, performances at Barking Legs Theater, arts education curriculum, or mentoring artists, Ann fosters diverse, new, and transformative arts experiences for everyone. She truly believes that the arts are essential to our lives. She is inclusive, embraces novelty and change, and reaches out to all areas of her community. Her goal is to promote creative and diverse opportunities for everyone to encounter the power of the arts.

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!”

CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR

Marcus Ellsworth is a Chattanooga based spoken word artist, event organizer, and LGBTQ+ activist. They co-host the unconventional and uncensored monthly open mic variety show The Floor Is Yours at Barking Legs Theater. He produces shows and writes under the brand Thingly Things with a focus on themes of fringe culture, unconventional narratives, horror, and socio-political commentary. Marcus is also the chairperson for the Hamilton/Bradley County chapter of Tennessee Equality Project, a statewide LGBTQ+ rights advocacy organization. 

They are happily married to their husband and partner of 17 years with whom they live under the benevolent tyranny of their two cats Judas and Fury.

CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR

Holly Morse-Ellington is a producer, director and playwright from Paducah, Kentucky. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Producer of Next Exit Productions, a new works and storytelling company that produces plays, films, and true storytelling events.

As a writer and playwright, she's published over 100 articles in national and regional media, including American Theatre Magazine, Baltimore Style and The Washington Times. Her plays include, Free To Go (premiered at Manhattan Repertory Theatre), Exiting A Man's Cave (published in The Furious Gazelle), and plays co-written with Jason Tinney that include 50 Miles Away (winner of Frostburg State One Acts Fest), Girl With Diamonds In Her Eyes: A Cowgirl Musical (premiered at Pumpkin Theatre) and Let Em Play. Holly received an Individual Artist Award in Playwriting from the Maryland State Arts Council. 

Holly's been a storyteller for The Stoop Storytelling Series (Baltimore’s Center Stage) and Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Oral History Project. She is the marketing director for Cast Iron Storytelling, created by Jason Tinney. Prior to joining the Barking Legs team, she was a digital marketing strategist and copy chief for international marketing firms. 

Barking Legs Theater was her first “home away from home” when she moved to Chattanooga in 2017. She directed and acted in the Muse of Fire Project, a kids write/adults act new works series at the Legs. As Co-Managing Director, Holly spearheads the Fringe Festival, develops marketing, and manages grantwriting and fundraising initiatives. 

She’s a passionate advocate for sustainable pay for performing artists and arts programming. Holly is a myth buster who believes in championing locally and regionally created art. 

FRONT OF HOUSE MANAGER

Mixy Mixon is a local independent theater artist who highlights community, connection, and the human experience in their work. 

Mixy received a B.A. in Theater and a B.A. in Women's and Gender Studies along with a curricular certificate in Playwriting  in 2021 from Sewanee: The University of the South. During their time at Sewanee Mixy was awarded the Tennessee Williams Fellowship in the Arts, performed in roles such as Fraulein Kost in Cabaret, Mercy Lewis in The Crucible, Major John Wesley Powell in Men on Boats, and Shiobhan in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and worked as a gender equality activist specifically highlighting advocacy for survivors of sexual assault.

In 2023 they joined Art's Build's Periscope: Chattanooga Entrepreneurship in the Arts program. Being a part of the first Periscope Cohort gave them new opportunities to connect with Chattanooga's Artists. It was here that Mixy became connected with Ann Law and met other great artists, mentors, and leaders such as Courtney Cholovich, Cherokee Ellison, and TJ Hanretta of Playful Evolving Monsters. This program stemmed a connection to Barking Legs Theater where they began as an Artist in Residence in Educational Music Directing for Normal Park's The Spongebob Musical.

In May of 2025 Mixy presented their original staged play Night & Day, in collaboration with Seed Theater. Mixy has developed a close relationship with Seed Theater, as they align with their mission of activism and advocacy in art. Mixy also works closely with Next Exit Productions, a local partner with Barking Legs committed to developing new works. Currently, Mixy is a playwright, actor, director, drag-lesque performer, and musician. They're passion is to care and advocate for Chattanooga's working performance artists. 

FACILITIES MANAGER

Aaron “Cherokee” Ellison, known as Coach Cherokee, was born and raised in Chattanooga. He danced with the hip-hop group The Hot Boys, opening for Three Six Mafia and other events, and secured a speaking role in Remember the Titans. His Capoeira journey began in Atlanta with Communidade De Capoeira Atlanta. Currently, he studies Capoeira Angola Guerreiro de Palmares under Mestre Lazaro and learns from many accredited Capoeira educators. Aaron teaches movement and music through a Capoeira lens throughout the greater Chattanooga area in preschools, youth-focused organizations, and local community festivals.