[4] Crombie then applied for and won a scholarship via Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) and the Australia Council to go to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.

She also trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), after being invited by Keith Bain, and the Eora Centre.

[5] Working with Stephen Page, she had some fun doing mixed drag acts, and in the 1980s joined the Sydney Mardi Gras to support the gay community during the AIDS pandemic.

[2][3] In 1988, she was one of a four-woman dance troupe who called themselves the African Dance Group and performed a show directed by Robyn Archer at The Space Theatre in the Adelaide Festival Centre for the Adelaide Festival of Arts, entitled AKWANSO (Fly South).

The others in the group were Ghanaian-Australian Dorinda Hafner, African-American dancer and choreographer Aku Kadogo, and Jamaican Jigzie Campbell.

[8] Crombie had her first outing on screen in the ABC Television series Heartland, along with her close colleague from acting school, Rachael Maza.

[2][3] She also starred in the TV series The Secret Life of Us and Mystery Road, and the feature film Lucky Miles.

[2][3] She says the spark was provided by the plight of a friend ten years earlier, who could not afford to travel home to Western Australia to attend the funeral of her mother, and no charities were able to help.

[12][2][3] The workshops included tuition in classical ballet, hip hop, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance, and drama.