Tom Pazik began his dance training in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

 where he studied under Sandra Severo. He continued his training with Leon Danelian, Yurek Lazowski, Michael Maule, Richard Thomas, and Vera Volkova

Vera Volkova

Vera Volkova was an influential Russian ballet dancer and dance teacher. Born in Tomsk, she trained in Petrograd at Akim Volynsky's School of Russian Ballet, also studying with the renowned Russian ballet mistress Agrippina Vaganova. She danced professionally with the Imperial Russian Ballet,...

.

Pazik joined the Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 Ballet as a principal dancer in 1970. He later became the Atlanta Ballet's Associate Director and Resident Choreographer. In 1983, he was appointed Artistic Director for the Baltimore Ballet. In June 1985, Robert Barnett appointed Pazik to the position of Director of the Atlanta School of Ballet and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Ballet II.

Since he began choreographing in 1974, Pazik created over eighty ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

s, including four full length ballets, children's ballets and lecture demonstrations. In 1977, The Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 engaged Pazik to choreograph the ballet sequences for La Traviata and La Favorita for the Opera's 1977-1978 season. His works have been in the repertoire of the Atlanta Ballet, Augusta

Augusta, Georgia

Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...

 Ballet, Baltimore Ballet, Boston Ballet, Joffrey II, Washington Ballet, Gus Giordano

Gus Giordano

Gus Giordano was an American jazz dancer. He was a performer on and off Broadway, in television, film and stage, and he is a master teacher, a gifted choreographer, founder of his company , creator of the Jazz Dance World Congress and the author of Anthology of American Jazz Dance, the first book...

 Jazz Dance Chicago, Dance Alive, Gainesville

Gainesville, Georgia

-Severe Weather:Gainesville sits on the very fringe of Tornado Alley, a region of the United States where severe weather is common. Supercell thunderstorms can sweep through any time between March and November, but are concentrated most in the spring...

 Ballet, Ruth Mitchell Dance Theatre, Tampa

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

 Ballet, Gwinnett Ballet Theatre, Peninsula Ballet, Atlanta Dance Theatre, Ballet Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, Augusta Dance Theatre, The Greenville Ballet, and The Philippine

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

Ballet Theater.

Along with his choreographic credits, Pazik had extensive credits as a teacher and trained a number of dancers who are now enjoying successful professional careers. Other aspects of his career include a background in technical theatre and musical comedy as a performer, technician costume designer, choreographer, director and teacher.

In 1992, Pazik founded Capital City Ballet, a preprofessional company and an Honor Company with Regional Dance America SERBA until 1999. In October 1993, Pazik was honored by the Southeastern Regional Ballet Association with their Lifetime Achievement Award.