Thomas Shoemaker started training with his aunt, Jean Greenway, in Miami, Florida, at the age of ten. He continued his training with Tommy Armour and Robert Pike while dancing with the Miami Ballet. Scholarship study with the Boston Ballet and a two year stay with the Louisville Ballet led to his contract with Robert Barnett's Atlanta Ballet, where he danced for over a decade, receiving national and international acclaim for the title roles in Prodigal Son, Billy the Kid, and Casanova, and for his interpretation of Puck in Midsummer's Night's Dream, Franz in Coppelia, and the Roasted Swan from Carmina Burana. Thomas's impressive versatility and powerful technique allow him the ability to dance works by Balanchine, Petipa, Tudor, Bournonville, and Loring. His artistic sensibility and maturity have led major choreographers like Fernand Nault, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Dennis Nahat, Mikhial Lavorsky, and Tom Pazik to create roles especially for him.

As a guest artist and teacher, Tom has worked with many companies, including the Cleveland Ballet, California Ballet, the Alabama Ballet and the Philippine Ballet Theater.

After leaving the Atlanta Ballet Shoemaker joined Edward Villela's Miami City Ballet as a principal soloist and while there earned critical and public acclaim for his performances in Paul Taylor's Company B, Lynn Taylor-Corbett's Surfacing, and Balanchine's Four Temperaments and Western Symphony.

Shoemaker joins the Augusta Ballet for his fourth season as a principal dancer and Company teacher. He danced the role of Don José in the Company's '96 production of Carmen, and last season charmed audiences with his portrayal of D'Artagnon in The Three Musketeers. Thomas's work stands as the ideal, the standard to which any artist should aspire.