Malia Bruker, Assistant Professor in the School of Communication, is the newest recipient of the 2015 Production Grant from the Dance Films Association. Bruker was awarded alongside Hannah Schwadron, choreographer and Assistant Professor of Dance History at Florida State University.

Dance Films Association is a non-profit organization established in 1956. The Production Grant from DFA awards $2,500 to allocate towards services and resources for films involving dance.

Bruker and Schwadron are working on a dance film, Klasse, which will start production later this year in Germany. The film goes back to winter of 1938 in Jewish Hamburg, Germany at the height of WWII in an old school classroom kept just as it was during the war. The intimate cast brings to life a year of letters written there between young classmates as they left one by one on the Kindertransport, and features dancers from the US and Germany, as well as German middle school students.

“Hannah and I are really honored that Dance Films Association chose our film this year,” said Bruker. “We think the subject matter, the historic space and the creative team coming together on this project will result in a really unique and beautiful piece.”

Production for Klasse will begin this May in Germany. Visit Malia Bruker’s personal site and Hannah Schwadron’s personal site for more information on their past work.