While the a child she received moving instruction from a good Mrs. Thorp during the midtown New york. Up to 1897, shortly after graduating away from Thorp’s moving university, she toured temporarily which have Black Patti’s Troubadours. An effective girlfriend welcome their own to help you design for an advertisement having Bert Williams and you will George Walker, who had simply scored a knock within vaudeville first from the Koster and you will Bial’s Sounds Hall. She offered to model with the offer and you can then inserted the guys to help you dance on cakewalk finale. Immediately following joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic toward Indianapolis Freeman stated, “I got just seen the greatest girl dancer.” Having Grace Halliday she shaped the fresh aunt moving act regarding Overton and Halliday. They did given that group of Honolulu Belles on the Williams and you can Walkers’ The policy Participants (1899), and you will from that point, Overton began to write since a good soloist with increased substantial spots. On music comedy The latest Sons from Ham (1900) she sang and you can danced “Miss Hannah from Savannah” and you may “Leading Lady”; and in the 2nd edition, “Society” and you will “Gleaming Ruby” which brought their unique jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson had written you to definitely she “had the lowest-pitched sound that have an organic sob to it, hence she understood strategies for that have telling effect during the putting more than a track” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their unique due to the fact a musician exactly who did ragtime music and ballads equally well; and as a dancer “who you certainly will manage almost everything, with no count whether it are dollar-and-side, cakewalk, otherwise some sort of grotesque dance . . . she lent the new results a cool gracefulness of motion unparalleled by the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
For the 1910, she inserted the fresh Smart Place, a black theatrical providers, and you will appeared in Their Award new Barber (1911)
On Summer 22, 1899, adopting the closing regarding A fortunate Coon, the brand new ragtime audio discussed by Ann Charters given that “a good hodge-podge of everything regarding ‘coon’ range regarding money-dance and ragtime melodies to help you alternatives from the grand opera,” Overton partnered George Walker; their relationship carry out alter and you will elevate the cakewalk off a center African-Western individuals dance on a black colored modernist phrase, a leading ways worth getting performed just before royalty, towards the white top-notch, as well as on the fresh new performance stage.
You to definitely night while you are onstage, George Walker, playing the role from Bud Jenkins, became sick
Williams and you will Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is one of the first black colored musicals to learn the fresh new cakewalk’s transformation. Involved, Aida (she changed the fresh new spelling out of their own name off Ada to Aida, title of the Haitian lwa from virility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot that have a presented unicamente, “I want to Feel a genuine Woman,” additionally the “Cakewalk Finale,” hitched by her husband. “The new line, the latest grace, the latest assured ecstasy of these performers, who bent over backwards up to its heads nearly handled the ground pГ¤ivГ¤määrГ¤ Taiwanilainen naiset meissГ¤, an accomplishment requiring an amazing level of electricity, its keen prancing, almost within the slow motion, have never come equaled in this particular revel, let-alone exceeded,” composed Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey are brought to London, where it absolutely was displayed at the an order show just before King Edward VII from the Buckingham Palace. Uk high-society observed new Royal Family unit members with a pouring passion having cakewalking. The organization gone back to Nyc with a new kind of the newest musical called When you look at the Dahomey, hence exposed during the Huge Opera (1904).
Into the Williams and Walker’s next reveal, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker try one another a performer and show’s choreographer. She try 2nd featured during the and you can staged the newest songs number for Bandanna Residential property (1908). Their periods was afterwards detected while the syphilis. Into the 1909 the guy remaining the latest inform you, and his awesome character was rewritten for Overton Walker, which donned their showy clothing and performed their number, along with their big track, “Bon-bon Buddie.” Along with her partner’s standing slower extracting, and you can facing where their own upcoming set, she chosen to not ever renew her offer having Williams and you can Walker and instead entered the latest cast off Bob Cole and you will J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh Yellow Moonlight (1909) in which she is checked in 2 songs wide variety: “Pheobe Brown” and you may “Pickaninny Days,” dance buck-and-side to the chorus. She next opened on The latest York’s Western Movie theater which have a good vaudeville operate offering a separate dance, the “Kara Kara,” otherwise dance l’Afrique.
