She researched and wrote extensively on the study of dance, co-authoring several books and writing hundreds of articles.

She graduated from Bryn Mawr College, receiving a BA in 1922, and an MA in art history in 1928, concurrently studying music and dance in Berlin, Philadelphia, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island from 1922 to 1928.

In the mid-1940s, she turned her focus to the study of American Indian dance, doing extensive fieldwork on the musical traditions of Michigan's Anishinaabe and others.

[2] She was awarded grants for field research by the Wenner-Gren Foundation from 1949 to 1973, the American Philosophical Society from 1951 to 1965, and the National Museum of Canada (1962–1965, 1969–1970).

One is the 20-page study on "Indians, American" by Bruno Nettl and Charlotte Heth on the music, Gertrude Kurath on the dance.