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Christina Acosta
Office Location: YCDC 201
Office Phone: (813)253-7623
E-mail: cacosta@hccfl.edu

Christina Acosta received her master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University and bachelor’s degrees in both Dance Performance and Arts Administration from Brenau University. Before teaching at HCC, Christina co-founded the dance program at Howard W. Blake High School for the Arts where she taught all levels of Modern Dance, Choreography, and direct the senior projects. During the four years at Blake, Christina produced over 20 performances and taught over 300 students. Christina was commissioned to write and implemented the Hillsborough County Honors Dance Curriculum and established curriculum outcomes for several high school dance courses. In 1990, Chistina lived in the Atlanta area where she trained with M. Jean Tepsic, Diane Callahan, Patdro Harris, and Heitzo. After moving to New York City, Christina studied with teachers among them were Merce Cunningham, Michael Moses, Trisha Brown, Claire Porter and Douglas Dunn. She has performed and presented her choreography at several NYC downtown dance venues. She has taught technology workshops and modern dance master classes for the Florida Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, University of South Florida, and for the Arts Council of Hillsborough County.
Richard Allan Ploch
Office Location: YCDC 204
Office Phone: (813)259-6409
E-mail: rploch@hccfl.edu

Richard Allan Ploch, Artistic Director for Acanthus, a chamber-sized Ballet Company and Adjunct Instructor of Dance at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, has been teaching ballet for over 20 years. Ploch began his career in Tucson, Arizona and went on to Ohio State University to receive a MA in Dance specializing in Labanotation. He includes as his mentors and principle teachers: George Zoritch, Nanette Charisse, Peff Modelski, John Calendar, Rosalind Pierson, Sheldon Ossosky, and Robert Yohn.


Ploch has performed with various ballet and modern companies in New York including the Light Opera of Manhattan. He also served as Assistant Choreographer with the Santa Fe Opera where he performed and also choreographed for the Apprentice Artists Program. An active choreographer, his work has been presented in the Northeast, the South and the Southwest. Currently, he devotes most of his choreographic energies to Acanthus.

Richard Allan Ploch maintains active memberships in several national and international dance organizations. They include the Society for Dance History Scholars, Dance/USA, International Council of Kinetography Laban and the Florida Dance Association. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Dance Registry, the Advisory Board for Performing Arts Resources and has just completed a second term on the Artists Advisory Committee of the Tampa/Hillsborough Arts Council. Ploch is a founding member of the Alliance of Dance Notation Educators, a group of dance professionals from all forms of dance who espouse and include dance notation with dance education.