Cara Connolly
Dancer
Lucy Hamilton
Dancer
Claire Solis
Dancer
Cara Connolly returns to the stage after dancing with Syracuse City Ballet from 2019-2023. She has danced professionally with numerous companies including Hudson Valley Ballet, Neglia Ballet Artists, American Swiss Ballet Company, Connecticut Ballet, and Ballet New England.
Originally from Long Island, New York, she received the majority of her training from Maggie Black. Connolly also trained and performed with Studio Maestro, Huntington Ballet Theatre, and the School at Steps in New York City. Beyond her year-round training, she attended some of the country’s most prestigious summer programs, including Boston Ballet, The Washington School of Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and New York State Summer School of the Arts.
In addition to performing, Connolly is an ABT®️ Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Her students have been accepted to many notable ballet programs including University of the Arts, Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet, The Rock School of Ballet, NYSSSA, American Academy of Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet School.
Lucy began began her formal training with the school of First State Ballet Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware. There she performed many corps roles with the professional company. At 16, Lucy moved to Florida to train at the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School with Ariel Serrano, Wilmian Hernandez, Delia Ballart, and Tania Vergara Pérez, as well as Roberto Machado of La Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterey, and Ramona De Saa and Ana Julia Bermudez, of the Cuban National Ballet School. While at SCBS, Lucy performed principal and soloist roles such as Sugar Plum, Dew Drop, Peasant Pas de Deux, Paquita Grand Pas Deux, La Bayadere, the Awakening of Flora, Mercedes in Don Quixote, and other classical and contemporary works. In 2015 Lucy won silver in the Encuentro Internacional de Academias in Cuba, and performed the lead in Tania Pérez’s Caminos at the same festival in April 2017.
In 2017 Lucy joined Ballet San Antonio and performed The Enchantress in Bruce Wells’ Beauty and the Beast, Snow Queen in Easton and Haley Smith’s Nutcracker, Fate in Yosvani Cortellan’s Carmen, as well as corps roles in Giselle, George Balanchine’s Rubies, and Gerald Arpino’s the Nutcracker. In 2019 Lucy joined Texas Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company under Ben Stevenson. There she performed in Stevenson’s Harlequinade Pas de Deux, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. In 2021 Lucy joined the Syracuse City Ballet and danced principal and soloist roles such as the Carmen, the Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen, Marie Taglioni in the Grand Pas de Quatre, the Wedding Pas de Deux from Sleeping Beauty, and the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella.
Claire Solis (Rathbun) was trained at Ballet and Dance of Upstate NY under the Direction of Kathleen Rathbun. At the age of 16, she moved to Philadelphia, PA to train at The Rock School for Dance Education where she was mentored by Mariaelena Ruiz. At the end of her second year at the Rock School, Solis won the silver medal at the Youth America Grand Prix New York City Finals dancing the Black Swan pas de deux. Solis was then offered a position with the Washington Ballet in Washington, DC directed by Septime Webre. There, Solis danced corps, and soloist roles in works like George Balanchine’s Serenade and Theme and Variations, Webre’s world premieres of Alice in Wonderland, Sleepy Hollow, and Carmina Burana, and Kirk Peterson’s Swan Lake. Solis debuted the principal role of Aurora in Marius Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty with Washington Ballet’s Studio Company.
Solis became a member of Actors Equity Association following Susan Stroman’s lab production of “Little Dancer”, understudying New York City Ballet’s Tiler Peck. Solis made her Broadway debut in 2017 as “Victoria” in the revival of “CATS”. In 2018, Solis was casted as an original cast member in the first US national tour of “Anastasia”. Solis was awarded the bronze medal for two consecutive years from the World Ballet Competition, and has made appearances on TV shows, like “America’s Got Talent” and “So You Think You Can Dance”. Most recently, Solis was a company dancer with Syracuse City Ballet for 5 seasons performing in several classical roles such as Cinderella, Kitri in Don Quixote, Diana in Diana and Acteon, and Odette and Odile in excerpts of Swan Lake.
Xavier Pugliese-Ciulei
Dancer
Abigail Stewart
Dancer
Lukas Figliozzi
Dancer
Xavier was born in Columbus, OH. He began his dance training at 8 and ballet at the age of 14. He received his formal training at the BalletMet Trainee program, where he danced corps and featured roles in works like Giselle, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty (Desire, Blue Bird) under the direction of Edward Liang, and other pieces such as Balanchine’s Western Symphony. In 2022, he joined BalletMet 2 where he danced ensemble roles and understudied for works like Edward Liang’s Murmuration, Tributary, Dorothy & the Prince of Oz.
As a member of BalletMet 2, Xavier danced corps de ballet and featured roles in Edward Liang’s Wounded, The Little Prince, Bugle Boy and Solace, as well as Leiland Charles’ Togetherness and George Balanchine’s Four Temperaments. In 2023, he joined Syracuse City Ballet and is now a dancer with Central New York Ballet.
Abigail Stewart was born in Jackson, Mississippi and began her dance training at age three with the Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet. After relocating to N.Y. in 2005, she began training with Ballet and Dance of Upstate, N.Y. Under the artistic direction of Kathleen Rathbun, Ms. Stewart performed in the Syracuse City Ballet’s first Nutcracker, and was featured as a soloist in productions of Snow White, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake. In addition to attending summer intensives with The Nutmeg Conservatory of Ballet and The Rock School for Dance Education, she attended the pre-professional division of The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia, P.A. from 2017-2019. Under the artistic direction of Bo and Stephanie Spassoff, she competed in the Youth American Grand Prix, performing variations for La Esmeralda and Aurora Act I, and was awarded as a top 25 finalist in the Philadelphia competitions.
In 2018, Ms. Stewart trained with IBStage in Barcelona, Spain. At the IB Stage Gales, she was featured in performances of Absence of Light, Defile, and Le Corsaire under the artistic direction of Elias Garcia and Luis Arias. During the 2019-2020 season, she trained with BalletMet, performing in Giselle, Le Corsaire, and the Nutcracker, under the artistic direction of Edwaard Liang. In August 2020, Ms. Stewart became a corps de ballet member of the Columbia Classical Ballet under the artistic direction of Radenko Pavlovich. Abigail Stewart danced as a soloist professionally with Syracuse City Ballet for three seasons from 2021-2023. Abigail looks forward to starting this new chapter of her professional career.
Lukas Figliozzi was born in Long Island and moved to Baldwinsville, NY at a young age. He participated in mainly music theater in his high school years until attending Rae’s Institute of Movement, in Cicero New York, at the age of 17 where he took his first ballet class. He decided quickly that was the path he wanted to go down and so went on to attend The Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory in Torrington Ct, a pre professional academy for classical ballet. He began most of his work there performing and refining technique through a diverse repertoire of classical work. He also got the privilege of working alongside some from very well known names in the ballet dance world such as Kirk Petson, Eleanor D’Antuono and Victoria Mazzarelli. As well as getting a chance to work with modern and contemporary choreographers such as Kate St. Amand, artistic director of SYREN modern dance in NYC, to works by more abstract and illusionist fusion company, MOMIX. He then attended Marymount Manhattan college in 2020 for a BFA. He remained living in New York City and began an apprenticeship with New York Dance Project under the leadership of Nicole Duffy and Davis Robertson performing a wide variety of repertoire. Including works by Gerald Arpino, and other local contemporary and hip hop artists around the city.
He was offered a contract with Syracuse City Ballet the summer of 2021 under the leadership of Aldo Katton when a year later the company changed leadership. He remained diligently working alongside his friends and fellow artists and has recently left Syracuse City Ballet to uphold a higher commitment of arts to the people of Syracuse.