Because the a baby she obtained dancing instruction away from a great Mrs. Thorp inside the midtown New york. Around 1897, immediately after graduating out of Thorp’s dancing school, she toured temporarily having Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. An excellent girlfriend enjoy their unique to help you model for a promotion with Bert Williams and you can George Walker, who’d merely obtained a bump inside their vaudeville first during the Koster and you may Bial’s Sounds Hallway. She provided to design into offer and you can after that entered brand new men so you’re able to dance throughout the cakewalk finale. Shortly after signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic on the Indianapolis Freeman proclaimed, “I experienced only noticed top girl dancer.” With Grace Halliday she molded the sibling dance act away from Overton and you may Halliday. They did once the group of Honolulu Belles in the Williams and you may Walkers’ The policy Participants (1899), and you can from that point, Overton started to develop as good soloist with good spots. About songs funny The Sons off Ham (1900) she carried out and you will danced “Skip Hannah out of Savannah” and you will “Top Woman”; and in the next edition, “Society” and you can “Sparkling Ruby” and therefore lead their particular jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson had written that she “got a reduced-pitched voice with a natural sob so you’re able to they, and this she realized how to use which have advising effect from inside the getting more than a tune” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher recalled their because the a singer whom performed ragtime music and you will ballads equally well; so when a performer “whom you certainly will do almost anything, no count in the event it was money-and-side, cakewalk, if you don’t some form of grotesque moving . . . she lent the new show a nice gracefulness of motion unparalleled because of the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).

Within the 1910, she entered the newest Smart Lay, a black theatrical company, and you may starred in Their Prize the new Barber (1911)

On June twenty-two, 1899, following the closing from A fortunate Coon, brand new ragtime musical explained of the Ann Charters as the “a beneficial hodge-podge of everything about ‘coon’ line out of buck-dancing and ragtime melodies to help you choices regarding the huge opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; its commitment perform change and you will intensify the cakewalk regarding a core African-American men and women moving into a black colored modernist phrase, a high art worth becoming did before royalty, for the white elite group, as well as on the newest concert phase.

You to evening if you are onstage, George Walker, to play the fresh new role out-of Bud Jenkins, turned unwell

Williams and Walker’s Dahomey (1903) are among the first black musicals to discover the brand new cakewalk’s transformation. On it, Aida (she changed the new spelling of their own title from Ada so you can Aida, the name of the Haitian lwa from fertility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot having a featured solo, “I wish to Getting a real Lady,” plus the “Cakewalk Finale,” hitched because of the their own partner. “New range, the newest elegance, brand new in hopes ecstasy of them performers, just who curved over backwards up to its minds nearly handled a floor, an accomplishment requiring an unbelievable number of stamina, their keen prancing, almost during the slow motion, have not become equaled in this revel https://kissbrides.com/fi/kuuma-puola-naiset/, aside from exceeded,” penned Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey is taken to London area, where it had been displayed at the an order results ahead of King Edward VII at Buckingham Castle. United kingdom high-society adopted the fresh Royal Relatives having a beneficial pouring enthusiasm getting cakewalking. The organization returned to Nyc with a brand new version of brand new sounds entitled When you look at the Dahomey, hence open in the Huge Opera (1904).

Into the Williams and you may Walker’s next reveal, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker was each other a dancer and show’s choreographer. She try 2nd looked when you look at the and staged the brand new sounds number having Bandanna Land (1908). His attacks was basically later on detected because syphilis. For the 1909 he remaining the brand new let you know, with his role is rewritten to possess Overton Walker, just who donned their fancy outfits and you can performed their numbers, together with his biggest tune, “Bon-bon Buddie.” Along with her partner’s status slowly breaking down, and you can faced with in which their unique upcoming place, she chosen to not replace their own contract which have Williams and Walker and you will as an alternative inserted the fresh shed off Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The latest Purple Moon (1909) where she is seemed in two audio wide variety: “Pheobe Brownish” and “Pickaninny Weeks,” dance money-and-side for the chorus. She next started from the The newest York’s Western Movie theater that have an excellent vaudeville work featuring another type of dance, new “Kara Kara,” or dance l’Afrique.