Given that a child she obtained dance classes out-of good Mrs. Thorp in midtown New york. Up to 1897, shortly after graduating of Thorp’s dancing university, she toured briefly that have Black Patti’s Troubadours. A beneficial girlfriend anticipate their own to help you model to own an advertising having Bert Williams and George Walker, that has only scored a hit in their vaudeville debut on Koster and you will Bial’s Music Hall. She wanted to design towards the advertising and you can after that registered new men to moving in the cakewalk finale. After signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic toward Indianapolis Freeman proclaimed, «I experienced merely seen the most effective girl performer.» Having Sophistication Halliday she molded this new sibling dancing operate regarding Overton and you may Halliday. They performed as the group of Honolulu Belles regarding Williams and Walkers’ The policy People (1899), and after that, Overton started initially to establish because a good soloist with an increase of reasonable jobs. From the songs comedy The fresh Sons out of Ham (1900) she carried out and you may danced «Skip Hannah out-of Savannah» and you can «Best Woman»; and in the next model, «Society» and you may «Sparkling Ruby» which brought their particular jubilant recognition. James Weldon Johnson blogged one to she «had the lowest-pitched voice which have a natural sob to they, hence she know ways to use with informing effect inside the placing over a song» (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their own given that a singer exactly who performed ragtime sounds and ballads just as well; and also as a performer «who could perform everything, with no amount whether it try dollar-and-wing, cakewalk, or even some kind of grotesque dance . . . she lent this new performance a cool gracefulness of motion unsurpassed from the anyone» (Fletcher 1954).
For the 1910, she entered new Wise Put, a black theatrical team, and you can starred in Their Prize this new Hairdresser (1911)
Towards the Summer 22, 1899, pursuing the closure out of A happy Coon, brand new ragtime music explained by the Ann Charters just like the «a beneficial hodge-podge of all things in the ‘coon’ line off buck-moving and you may ragtime melodies so you can choices in the grand opera,» Overton married George Walker; their relationship do changes and you may elevate the cakewalk out of a center African-American anyone dancing into a black modernist expression, a high artwork worthy of getting did just before royalty, with the white professional, and on the new performance stage.
You to nights while onstage, George Walker, to tackle the fresh new role off Bud Jenkins, turned into unwell
Williams and you will Walker’s Dahomey (1903) try one of the first black musicals to locate brand new cakewalk’s transformation. Involved, Aida (she changed brand new spelling off their title off Ada so you can Aida, the name of one’s Haitian lwa of virility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot that have a highlighted solamente, «I want to Feel a bona-fide Lady,» plus the «Cakewalk Finale,» partnered of the their particular spouse. «Brand new range, the brand new elegance, the latest assured euphoria ones dancers, just who curved over backward until its minds nearly moved the floor, an accomplishment requiring an incredible quantity of stamina, its enthusiastic prancing, nearly into the slow motion, have-not started equaled in this particular revel, aside from surpassed,» wrote Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974) HJERNE. Dahomey try delivered to London area, in which it had been presented in the a demand results in advance of Queen Edward VII in the Buckingham Castle. British high-society followed the latest Regal Friends with an effective gushing enthusiasm to possess cakewalking. The organization gone back to New york with a new form of the songs entitled From inside the Dahomey, and therefore established during the Huge Opera (1904).
For the Williams and Walker’s second inform you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker was each other a performer additionally the show’s choreographer. She are second looked into the and staged the new musical number to possess Bandanna Home (1908). Their episodes was later identified as syphilis. Into the 1909 he kept this new reveal, and his awesome role was rewritten to have Overton Walker, just who donned his fancy clothes and you can sang his amounts, plus their significant track, «Bon-bon Buddie.» Together with her partner’s condition slowly wearing down, and you will faced with where their particular future place, she selected not to ever replace their particular bargain that have Williams and you will Walker and instead inserted the fresh new cast from Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh Reddish Moon (1909) in which she are seemed in 2 audio number: «Pheobe Brown» and you can «Pickaninny Weeks,» dancing dollars-and-side toward chorus. She next open at The brand new York’s Western Theatre which have a good vaudeville work offering a special moving, the «Kara Kara,» or moving l’Afrique.
