Bloch was born in Tarnau, Galicia & Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (now Tarnów, Poland) because her mother, Charlotte, had returned from New York City to give birth[1] on December 18, 1897.

She spent a year learning Javanese dancing at the palace of the Prince of Solo in Surakarta in Java.

[4] Bloch also started using her journalist and artistic skills by sketching the dancers at the Art Students League in New York.

[4] The same year she published Dancing and the Drama East and West which included some of her drawings and an introduction by her husband.

[5] The book was able to compare the different dance heritages of eastern as well as western cultures because she had studied them whilst touring not only Java but also India, Bali, Cambodia, China and Japan.

During the 1920s she sketched and painted scenes as part of the Harlem Renaissance which also included portraits of Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker and Thelonious Monk.

[6] They both worked in the film industry until the House Committee on Un-American Activities named her husband.