Barking Legs Theater was founded on Dodds Avenue in 1993 by Ann Law as a performing arts venue, and since has grown into one of Chattanooga’s best hidden gems and an experimental, diverse, inclusive, and intimate space for the local arts and performance community.
The programming is often diverse, and the venue has, since the beginning, put a focal point on presenting non-mainstream or boundary-pushing art, including Wednesday Jazz night with local jazz performers, independent and spoken word theater, visual art, and more modern and experimental dance.
The venue itself is very intimate, holding 76 fixed seats with a capacity to hold up to 150 people.
Culturally, Barking Legs is a staple in the Scenic City, often nurturing and celebrating up-and-coming artists, playwrights, musicians, and marginalized voices. If you are at all curious about the origins of the name, like I was, it stems from the “bark leggins” that were worn by scouts and woodsmen of the Appalachian region in the last century, serving as a metaphor for the theater's experimental and ruggedly independent nature.
I had the chance to hear collectively from the entire staff at Barking Legs about their mission and origins, including executive director Ann Law, visual branding strategist Lupin Kaplan, theater manager Mixy Mixon, teaching artist and facility manager Coach Cherokee, and managing director Marcus Ellsworth.
“Barking Legs Theater’s mission is to enhance the community by cultivating and mentoring diverse artists, presenters, and audiences in an accessible and creative environment. We love our mission because it continues to grow with us, creates space for all things, and continues to embrace our community.
The simplicity of our mission continues to enliven us on so many levels. Because we believe in creative placemaking, we embrace this warm, vibrant culture that makes us who we are, presenting thriving traditional forms of the performing arts to the most challenging innovative ones that continue to encourage those deep conversations through art that represents who we are.”
When speaking on the identity of Barking Legs and what people should expect from a typical show at the venue, the team urged attendees to leave expectations outside and to embrace the warmth of the programming designed to facilitate a sense of warmth and a feeling of community.
“Leave your expectations outside. The only expectation you should come with is the guarantee of a warm community. We at Barking Legs create and highlight innovative art that challenges societal conventions, preserves cultural tradition, and often offers an alternative take. We have an eclectic variety of jazz, theater, dance, comedy, and more.
Take a deep breath and engage in our artistry, highlighting local and regional artists of different varieties. Check out our website at Barkinglegs.org to see what piques your interest. We want to leave our audiences inspired, connected, and engaged. Your experience is what has kept us going for almost 34 years.”
Barking Legs has also been committed to giving back to the community, and they have partnered with several nonprofits, working to prioritize and emphasize community support.
“In 2015, Ann Law created a collective of teaching artists to engage in Chattanooga’s greater arts community. Spanning from dance education in local schools and ranging to theatrical performances in the educational sphere.
We at Barking Legs prioritize community support and participate in local partnerships with hands-on community organizations such as Capoeira Chattanooga, Seed Theatre, Art 120, Playful Evolving Monsters, Southern Exposure, Arts Build, Providence Dance Company, The Pop-Up Project, the City of Chattanooga, and many more.
In addition to the non-profit partners above, we work with Art to Empower to provide arts and movement education to the youth of Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Food Coalition that feeds the local community with free food and hygiene products and hosts PFLAG’s meetings.”
Over the last three decades, Barking Legs has evolved into not only a cornerstone of the city’s independent arts scene, but it has also been able to remain intentionally small, eclectic, community-driven, and oriented.
The theater puts on some of the most unique, diverse, and original performances in the entire city, and they have simultaneously remained true to their roots and commitment to community building while being one of the best hidden gems in Chattanooga.
Finally, when asking the team at Barking Legs about what strategic goals they have planned for the next three to five years and their plans for the future of the venue, they mentioned that they intend to reignite their programming to include more community outreach and education, as well as focus more on how to facilitate collective community healing through art.
“We are reigniting our programming to include community outreach and education through teaching artists, creating a new concept on the fringe festival, and launching the Fearless Pathways- New Artist Incubator program. We are looking ahead and into the elements that have strengthened our city, while also analyzing the elements that have weakened the essence of our community and how we can facilitate collective healing.
As artists working at Barking Legs, we realize that right now, listening empowers our actions forward to create work that allows our community to take a deep breath, experience joy and understanding in different ways, to be motivated to create, and trust art that challenges and yet feeds us.”
Barking Legs Theater
- 1307 Dodds Ave, Chattanooga, TN.
- barkinglegs.org