[4][5] She studied dance with Hanya Holm, Harald Kreutzberg, and Michio Itō, among other teachers.

[6] Chew worked as a social worker at Oakland's International Institute after college.

She danced on Broadway in Continental Varieties (1935) with French singer Lucienne Boyer,[7][8] and in the film adaptation of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth (1937).

[13] She appeared with the Red Gate Players,[14] directed by puppeteer Pauline Benton; she succeeded Soo Yong and the troupe's "mistress of ceremonies".

[15] Caroline Chew married performer, writer and publicist Lee Ruttle in New York in 1938.