Since the a baby she obtained moving training off good Mrs. Thorp inside the midtown New york. Around 1897, once graduating from Thorp’s dancing school, she toured briefly which have Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. A beneficial girlfriend greet their own so you can design to own an advertising which have Bert Williams and you will George Walker, who had simply scored a bump within their vaudeville introduction on Koster and you may Bial’s Audio Hallway. She wanted to model for the offer and you can then registered this new men to help you dancing on cakewalk finale. Just after joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, good critic toward Indianapolis Freeman stated, “I experienced only observed a girl performer.” Which have Elegance Halliday she molded the brother moving operate out of Overton and you can Halliday. It did while the pair of Honolulu Belles regarding the Williams and Walkers’ The insurance policy People (1899), and from that point, Overton started initially to make just like the a soloist with an increase of nice positions. About musical comedy The fresh Sons out-of Ham (1900) she sang and you can danced “Skip Hannah regarding Savannah” and you may “Best Woman”; plus the second version, “Society” and you will “Gleaming Ruby” and therefore brought their unique jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson wrote one to she “had a reduced-pitched voice which have an organic sob to help you it, and therefore she realized making use of that have advising perception from inside the placing over a song” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated her while the an artist who did ragtime musical and ballads as well; so when a performer “exactly who you may do every little thing, without matter if it was dollars-and-side, cakewalk, if you don’t some form of grotesque Singaporean kvinner med dating dancing . . . she lent new abilities a cool gracefulness of motion unsurpassed from the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
When you look at the 1910, she inserted the Smart Place, a black colored theatrical company, and you can starred in His Prize this new Barber (1911)
To your Summer twenty two, 1899, following closure regarding A lucky Coon, new ragtime audio described from the Ann Charters due to the fact “a hodge-podge of the things regarding the ‘coon’ line off money-moving and you will ragtime melodies so you’re able to options regarding the huge opera,” Overton married George Walker; its partnership would alter and escalate the brand new cakewalk from a core African-American someone dancing into the a black modernist phrase, a premier art value becoming performed prior to royalty, on light top-notch, as well as on the show phase.
That night while onstage, George Walker, to tackle brand new role off Bud Jenkins, turned into unwell
Williams and you will Walker’s Dahomey (1903) try one of the first black musicals to see the cakewalk’s transformation. On it, Aida (she altered the spelling from their term regarding Ada so you’re able to Aida, the name of Haitian lwa from fertility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot which have a highlighted unicamente, “I would like to Feel a bona fide Lady,” and “Cakewalk Finale,” partnered by the their particular partner. “The fresh new range, the sophistication, the new in hopes euphoria of them dancers, exactly who bent more backward up until their heads almost handled the floor, an accomplishment demanding an unbelievable number of fuel, their enthusiastic prancing, almost within the slow motion, have not been equaled in this particular revel, not to mention surpassed,” penned Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey try taken to London, where it absolutely was demonstrated in the a demand overall performance prior to Queen Edward VII at the Buckingham Palace. United kingdom high society then followed the new Royal Friends which have a pouring desire for cakewalking. The business gone back to Ny with a brand new form of new musical called In the Dahomey, which opened within Grand Opera (1904).
Into the Williams and you may Walker’s second let you know, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker try each other a performer and show’s choreographer. She are next appeared in the and you can staged brand new songs wide variety for Bandanna Belongings (1908). His periods was in fact afterwards detected once the syphilis. During the 1909 he remaining the brand new inform you, and his character try rewritten to possess Overton Walker, just who donned his showy gowns and you can performed his number, and additionally their biggest track, “Bon-bon Buddie.” With her partner’s reputation slowly extracting, and you can facing in which their own upcoming set, she selected to not ever replenish their particular package having Williams and you may Walker and you will instead inserted the latest shed regarding Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The brand new Red Moonlight (1909) in which she is featured in 2 musical amounts: “Pheobe Brownish” and “Pickaninny Months,” moving money-and-wing with the chorus. She 2nd opened from the New York’s American Theater having a good vaudeville work presenting another dance, brand new “Kara Kara,” otherwise dance l’Afrique.