The leaders of Ballet Des Moines say all the pieces are coming together to launch a full-time dance company in late 2011.

By this time next year, Ballet Des Moines plans to begin hiring a company of eight professional dancers, along with one paid student apprentice. For the past eight years, the nonprofit organization has hired professional dancers from other ballet companies across the country for its community ballet performances.

“Des Moines is growing up, and we’ve got to grow up along with it or get left behind,” said Katherine Harrington, president of Ballet Des Moines’ board of directors.

Much like the finely choreographed steps within its performances, Ballet Des Moines is executing a number of coordinated moves to reach its goal.

One of those steps has been to hire its first full-time executive director. Last month, Ballet Des Moines hired Rachel Gross, an Iowa native who returned to the state from Chicago, to fill that position.

The nonprofit organization also recently renewed its lease agreement for the 10,000-square-foot studio space in the East Village it has occupied for the past two years. Volunteers are in the midst of decorating that space using ideas contributed by Des Moines Area Community College interior design students, who adopted the task as a yearlong project.

The ballet company has also launched several high-profile initiatives in the past year, and is now preparing for two full-length community performances – “The Nutcracker” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

Overlayering all of that activity for the volunteer-driven organization is a countdown toward launching a full-time professional ballet company.

“My motto is, ‘Anything worth doing is worth overdoing,’” quipped Harrington, a senior account executive with Business Publications LLC, who became the board’s president in April 2009. Since then, “we identified that, yes, there is a need for a resident ballet company. It’s always been our mission since we formed in 2002, to bring home-grown, resident ballet back to Des Moines. There used to be a company many years ago, and there’s been a gap.”

The organization’s new executive director said Greater Des Moines’ growing reputation in the arts prompted her to move here from Chicago.

“I had a couple of friends who had moved to Des Moines who said the arts community was really growing and it was really great,” Gross said. “I took a chance and moved here in January, and I’ve loved it.”

The Cedar Rapids native was nearing the end of a summer internship with Blank Park Zoo’s special events team when she heard about the executive director opening. Gross, who earned a bachelor’s degree in performing arts management at Columbia College in Chicago, previously worked for the Chicago Tribune in its advertising department. She has also been involved in the Chicago Human Rhythm Project and Metromix Chica.

Gross, whose staff includes an artistic director, ballet mistress and bookkeeper, each part-time, said her priorities with Ballet Des Moines are clear.

“First and foremost, I want to help fund-raise as much as possible for the organization so that we can have a full-time dance company in Central Iowa,” she said. “I want to be a motivator to all of the committees; keep everyone on track with our goals and mission.”

Ballet Des Moines’ budget, which was about $350,000 this year, will grow significantly in 2011 to about $500,000 to support the full-tme company, Harrington said. Ticket sales, corporate donations (including grants and foundation giving) and individual donations each contribute to about one-third of the organization’s revenues, she said.

The ballet, which usually performs at Hoyt Sherman Place, will perform for the first time at the Civic Center of Des Moines in February when it presents “Alice in Wonderland.”

“It will involve a lot of the community and about 100 children,” Harrington said. The 60-piece Des Moines Community Orchestra will provide the music for the show, which will use choreography, sets, props and costumes from Salt Creek Ballet in Chicago.

“It’s a nice community show that draws a lot of people, so it’s going to be very good to help us fund-raise,” she said.

Several new events launched within the past year have helped to keep Ballet Des Moines top-of-mind in the community, Harrington said. One of those has been a ballet school. Its initial classes, Dance Without Limits, offers ballet instruction to children with cognitive disabilities. Harrington said her organization hopes to expand the school to include other community classes in areas such as Pilates, yoga or holistic wellness.

Another initiative has been Ballet Des Moines II, a pre-professional company made up of 27 high school students who were chosen through community auditions. In the past several months, that company has performed at a number of community events, including the Festival of Trees and Lights, East Village Promenade, the Bravo Arts Gala and the Des Moines Arts Festival.

To refurbish its studio at 712 E. Second St., Ballet Des Moines has held an Adopt a Room challenge in which volunteers have signed on to sponsor areas of the building to contribute time, money and people toward painting and decorating the spaces.

Ballet Des Moines has also hired Trilix Marketing to handle its public relations, to include building a new following using social media.

“We have been growing with new ideas and hitting new markets,” Gross said. “We’re reaching out to the Facebook crowds and the Twitter crowds, but still targeting families and children with our ‘Nutcracker’ performances and our ‘Alice in Wonderland’ performances, trying to get each age group involved and excited about the ballet.”