[6] She graduated from Lyons Township High School in Illinois, and studied dance with Michel Fokine and other Russian dancers.

In 1935, she made her New York debut at the Guild Theatre, in a program of regional Mexican and "interpretive" dances with elaborate costumes.

[13] She traveled in Mexico[14] and many Asian countries[15][16] during the 1930s and 1940s, studying, performing, and teaching traditional dances.

[18] For a time, when her travels were restricted during World War II,[7] she taught dance to the daughter of the Shah of Iran.

[23][24] She wrote a book, Classic Dances of the Orient (1967),[25] with "particularly extensive treatments of the Indian Bhurat Natyam and the Japanese Nihan Buyo.