A Bay Area native, Connolly Strombeck began dancing at an early age, studying Irish step dance, Argentine tango, tap, and various other disciplines before coming to the Academy of Ballet in San Francisco to begin his ballet training in earnest under Richard Gibson, Zory Karah, and Elizabeth Gravelle. He received supplemental training from such teachers as Trinette Singleton, Eleanor D’Antuono, and Willy Shives via the Joffrey Ballet, Johan Renvall and Leslie Browne from American Ballet Theater, and Damara Bennett, among many others.

He began his professional career at Missouri Ballet Theater in St. Louis, followed by several years with the Oakland Ballet Company and Company C Contemporary Dance in Walnut Creek before accepting a position as a principal dancer at Ballet Tucson, where he danced for four seasons before retiring in order to return to the Academy as a full-time staff member.

He has had the privilege of exploring choreography from a young age, starting with a number of ballets set on Chamberdance SF while still training, as well as winning Ballet Tucson’s first annual choreographic competition, Choreolab, in 2016, and presenting two works for the company the following year. Upon returning to the Bay Area, he accepted a choreographic residency with SAFEhouse for the Arts for the summer of 2019 and hopes to continue to present new works at the professional level in parallel to his career teaching young dancers and adult students alike.