In 1935, while still an undergrad at the University of Chicago, Dunham happened to attend a lecture by anthropological researcher, Prof. Robert Redfeild. His idea that African traditions had been preserved within popular dances at the time such as the lindy, was very influential to her. She then questioned further; What if these cultures had been even better preserved within the traditional dances of Afro-Carribeans? This was a turning point in Dunham's career, when she decided to combine her love of anthropology and dance. After being interviewed by a committee at the Rosenwald Foundation, she was awarded a $2,400 fellowship to travel to the Carribean to do field work. One country Katherine chose to study while there is Haiti, which the video below exemplifies. It shows her interpretation of the meaning of some of their traditional dances and how she was planning to integrate parts of them into her own choreography. She also did field work in Martinique, Trinidad, and Jamaica.