Because the a baby she obtained moving classes away from a great Mrs. Thorp during the midtown New york. Up to 1897, immediately following graduating regarding Thorp’s dance college, she toured temporarily having Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. An effective girlfriend greeting their unique in order to design having an advertising having Bert Williams and you will George Walker, who had only scored a hit within their vaudeville introduction on Koster and you will Bial’s Songs Hallway. She wanted to design to the advertisement and you can subsequently inserted brand new guys in order to moving regarding cakewalk finale. Once joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a good critic with the Indianapolis Freeman stated, “I’d just seen the greatest girl performer.” Having Elegance Halliday she shaped the fresh sis moving work from Overton and Halliday. It performed given that group of Honolulu Belles throughout the Williams and you may Walkers’ The insurance policy Users (1899), and you will from there, Overton started initially to make while the good soloist with an increase of nice positions. About music comedy The fresh new Sons from Ham (1900) she carried out and danced “Miss Hannah out-of Savannah” dating lady Lugano and you may “Top Lady”; as well as in their 2nd edition, “Society” and you may “Gleaming Ruby” and therefore lead their unique jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson blogged you to definitely she “got a reduced-pitched sound with a natural sob in order to they, and therefore she know how to use that have informing perception during the getting over a track” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher remembered their unique because the a singer whom did ragtime tunes and you will ballads just as well; so when a dancer “which you can expect to do almost anything, and no count in the event it try dollars-and-wing, cakewalk, or even some type of grotesque moving . . . she borrowed this new performance a nice gracefulness of motion unsurpassed because of the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
From inside the 1910, she inserted the Wise Put, a black colored theatrical organization, and you will starred in His Award the fresh new Barber (1911)
Into June twenty-two, 1899, following the closure from A happy Coon, the fresh new ragtime tunes described from the Ann Charters just like the “good hodge-podge of everything regarding the ‘coon’ range out of dollars-dancing and ragtime melodies so you can choices on huge opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; their partnership manage changes and escalate the new cakewalk from a center African-Western folks dancing for the a black colored modernist phrase, a leading artwork value becoming performed ahead of royalty, into white professional, as well as on the brand new concert stage.
That evening if you’re onstage, George Walker, playing the latest role regarding Bud Jenkins, turned unwell
Williams and you may Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is actually among the first black colored musicals to find out new cakewalk’s conversion. Inside it, Aida (she changed the spelling from her label regarding Ada in order to Aida, the name of your own Haitian lwa off virility) played Rosetta Lightfoot having a featured solamente, “I want to Become a genuine Lady,” and “Cakewalk Finale,” hitched from the their husband. “The range, the grace, brand new assured ecstasy of those dancers, just who curved over backwards until their heads nearly touched a floor, a task requiring an unbelievable quantity of electricity, the keen prancing, nearly within the slow-motion, never have become equaled in this revel, let-alone surpassed,” typed Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey try taken to London area, where it actually was exhibited on a demand overall performance just before Queen Edward VII from the Buckingham Palace. British high society adopted the fresh Regal Family unit members that have a beneficial pouring love for cakewalking. The organization returned to New york with a brand new style of brand new musical entitled Into the Dahomey, hence unwrapped within Huge Opera (1904).
From inside the Williams and Walker’s second tell you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker try one another a performer plus the show’s choreographer. She was 2nd seemed into the and you can staged the newest musical number having Bandanna Residential property (1908). Their symptoms was after identified while the syphilis. When you look at the 1909 the guy leftover this new reveal, with his part was rewritten for Overton Walker, which donned their fancy outfits and you can carried out his numbers, also their biggest track, “Bon bon Buddie.” With her partner’s updates slow extracting, and confronted with where their upcoming put, she chose not to renew their bargain with Williams and you will Walker and you may alternatively joined the fresh new shed from Bob Cole and you will J. Rosamonde Johnson’s This new Red-colored Moon (1909) where she try looked in 2 songs amounts: “Pheobe Brown” and you may “Pickaninny Months,” dancing buck-and-side with the chorus. She next launched during the The fresh York’s American Theater having a great vaudeville act featuring another type of dancing, the latest “Kara Kara,” otherwise moving l’Afrique.
