AMES, Iowa — Eager to pick up the paintbrushes waiting at their desks, more than 20 Des Moines students first received a lesson in an unexpected subject — ballet — before using those brushes to translate movements into art. 

The Findley Elementary School students were encouraged to incorporate motion into their brushstrokes, painting over an initial layer created by fellow classmates who used their feet to apply the paint. The project was part of a two-day series of workshops led by Iowa State University art and visual culture associate professor Olivia Valentine, whose work has been exhibited and performed across the U.S. and internationally at museums and galleries.

The workshops were the final production for Valentine’s nine-month residency with Ballet Des Moines. As the artist-in-residence — a partnership with Ballet Des Moines and the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation — Valentine explored the integration of movement with art. She was challenged to lead a three-part collaboration that would include a public performance, gallery exhibition and community engagement in local schools.

“I’ve always wanted to work with dancers, and this experience was more than I ever thought possible,” Valentine said. “Through the process, we were thinking about things like collaboration and other ways of making art that might be unfamiliar.”

Integrating students with professionals

The hands-on experiment in the classroom reflects the same collaborative processes and artistic techniques Valentine used throughout her residency working with the Ballet Des Moines team, including dancer Megan Boyette and artistic director Eric Trope.

Megan Boyette, a dancer with Ballet Des Moines, shows sixth-grade students how to create art using their feet at Findley Elementary School in Des Moines in late April. Photo courtesy of Jami Milne/Ballet Des Moines

“Together, they explored the synergy between Olivia Valentine's artistic practice and Megan Boyette's dancing to create an artwork that is inextricably linked with Eric's ballet itself. This interconnectedness brought visual art, ballet and live music via the Belin Quartet together on stage to form a cohesive work,” said Alexa McCarthy, executive director of the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation.

Valentine used these same principles to guide students in working collaboratively to create their own movement-focused artwork. Their teacher Marley Butts, and Alyssa Zimmerman, program manager at Findley Elementary for the By Degrees Foundation, observed the workshops that aimed at advancing public art through public and private collaborations and enhancing community access and understanding.

“In a traditional art class, some kids hold back, but adding movement completely broke down those walls. They are not just learning technique; they are practicing the kind of outside-the-box thinking they will need later in life,” Zimmerman said. 

Bringing professionals into the classroom is part of the By Degrees Foundation’s mission to increase high school graduation and postsecondary readiness rates in schools on Des Moines' northside, said Zimmerman, who is planning to partner with Valentine and Iowa State on future projects.

Weaving movement into art

Valentine, an award-winning visual artist whose work spans textile construction, drawing, photography and installation, approached the residency through her broader interest in expanding the ways people experience public art. 

To capture the ephemeral movements of dance, Valentine created collaborative spill-paint drawings with Boyette, who moved across large sheets of paper with paint applied to her pointe and flat shoes.

Up close image of "Spilled Shadow (with Megan)"

Through a combination of improvised dancing and coaching by Valentine, an image emerged, which was then photographed. Valentine secured rare access to a state-of-the-art digital loom at Praxis Fiber Workshop in Ohio to translate the photo into a large format hand-woven textile.  

Using their digital weaving technology, Valentine transformed thousands of black and white cotton threads into a 14 x 3.5-foot hand-woven object. The week-long process, which Valentine partially captured on video, was physical for both the dancer and the fiber artist.

“This was a way to fix and remember the dance. They spend 6 to 8 weeks designing the choreography, practicing the piece, and then it has two nights on the stage and that's it. It's over,” Valentine said. “But the fabric lasts a long time. And it is also able to move beyond the stage.”

Iowa State’s Student Innovation Center houses a similar loom — the only one of its kind in Iowa — which Valentine plans to incorporate into a new course in the College of Design this fall. Fiber Arts and Textiles: Structure and Form will offer hands-on experience with the same technology used to create the work.

Sharing the visual art experience

The final textile was titled “Spilled Shadow (with Megan)” and served as the backdrop for the dance, “Shadow Dances,” choreographed and directed by Trope, a part of Ballet Des Moines’ production

Valentine's artwork was displayed during the "Shadow Dances" portion of the Ballet Des Moines production of "Nothing Holds Still" at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines in February 2026. Photo courtesy of Ryan Morrison.

 “Nothing Holds Still,” and performed in February at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines. The production was described as a “meditation on change, time and the fleeting nature of stillness.”

“I've always enjoyed dance, and I've really always loved seeing dance from above, in particular. The way the patterns unfold and the choreography, this project ultimately was a way to show that choreography on a horizontal plane, and then displayed vertically on the stage,” Valentine said.

Throughout her residency, Valentine shared her artistic vision and unique processes with students at Iowa State in her textile and fiber arts courses. 

“They got to see it unfold in real time, which was really fun,” she said.  

Valentine said the experience has opened new possibilities for future work rooted in movement-based collaboration.

“I feel like there are definitely some more legs for potentially this work in the dance community or otherwise,” she said. 

While the residency marked Valentine’s first time working with dancers, collaboration has long been central to her practice. For more than a decade, she has partnered with sound artist and composer Paula Matthusen, blending textile construction with feedback-based electronic music.

The pair released their third album together last September and plan to begin a fourth iteration this summer using a partially computer-controlled loom in Valentine’s studio. The evolving project produces textile, video and sound outputs, continuing to blur the boundaries between disciplines.