Due to the fact an infant she received dance training away from a good Mrs. Thorp in midtown New york. Doing 1897, once graduating off Thorp’s dance university, she toured temporarily that have Black Patti’s Troubadours. An excellent girlfriend desired their particular to model for a marketing having Bert Williams and you may George Walker, who’d simply obtained a bump inside their vaudeville introduction in the Koster and you will Bial’s Audio Hall. She wanted to model on post and you can next inserted this new guys in order to dancing from the cakewalk finale. Immediately following signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a beneficial critic to the Indianapolis Freeman declared, “I experienced only seen the very best girl dancer.” With Elegance Halliday she molded the fresh new brother dancing work from Overton and you will Halliday. It did given that group of Honolulu Belles throughout the Williams and you will Walkers’ The policy People (1899), and you will following that, Overton began to develop because the good soloist with additional good-sized positions. Regarding songs comedy The latest Sons of Ham (1900) she done and you will danced “Miss Hannah off Savannah” and you will “Top Lady”; Espanja kauniita tyttГ¶jГ¤ and in their second model, “Society” and you will “Sparkling Ruby” which introduced their own jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson had written that she “had a minimal-pitched sound with a natural sob to help you they, and therefore she understood strategies for with informing perception from inside the placing more than a tune” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher recalled their because the a singer exactly who did ragtime music and you may ballads as well; and also as a performer “whom you can expect to manage everything, no number whether it is buck-and-side, cakewalk, if you don’t some form of grotesque dance . . . she lent the overall performance a cool gracefulness of movement unsurpassed from the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
For the 1910, she inserted new Wise Lay, a black theatrical company, and you will starred in Their Award the Hairdresser (1911)
To your June twenty two, 1899, following the closure off A fortunate Coon, the latest ragtime songs explained by Ann Charters given that “a good hodge-podge of the things from the ‘coon’ range out of money-moving and you may ragtime melodies so you can selections throughout the huge opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; its connection carry out alter and intensify the brand new cakewalk of a core African-Western anyone dance towards a black colored modernist term, a leading art well worth being performed in advance of royalty, into light elite group, as well as on the fresh concert phase.
You to night if you find yourself onstage, George Walker, to try out the brand new part of Bud Jenkins, turned into unwell
Williams and you can Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is actually one of the first black colored musicals to learn this new cakewalk’s conversion. Inside, Aida (she altered the spelling regarding their unique label out-of Ada so you’re able to Aida, title of Haitian lwa away from virility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot which have a highlighted solamente, “I wish to Feel a genuine Lady,” plus the “Cakewalk Finale,” married because of the their own spouse. “New line, the brand new elegance, the hoping euphoria of those performers, who bent more than backward up until their thoughts almost handled the floor, a task requiring an amazing level of stamina, the enthusiastic prancing, almost in the slow-motion, have-not been equaled in this particular revel, not to mention surpassed,” authored Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey try taken to London area, in which it absolutely was presented at a command performance prior to King Edward VII within Buckingham Palace. British high society used the latest Regal Nearest and dearest with an excellent gushing enthusiasm to own cakewalking. The firm gone back to Ny with a new types of the new musical titled Within the Dahomey, and that opened at Grand Opera (1904).
From inside the Williams and Walker’s next let you know, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker is actually each other a performer in addition to show’s choreographer. She is next looked inside and you will staged the latest tunes numbers having Bandanna Land (1908). Their episodes had been after detected since the syphilis. For the 1909 he left the new show, with his part was rewritten having Overton Walker, whom donned their flashy dresses and you will performed his wide variety, including their biggest tune, “Bon-bon Buddie.” With her husband’s reputation slowly wearing down, and you can confronted with where their coming lay, she selected not to ever replace their particular package having Williams and you will Walker and you can alternatively inserted brand new throw from Bob Cole and you will J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The newest Purple Moon (1909) where she is actually featured in 2 musical wide variety: “Pheobe Brownish” and you may “Pickaninny Months,” dancing money-and-side towards chorus. She 2nd open within The brand new York’s American Movie theater that have a good vaudeville act presenting a different sort of moving, the new “Kara Kara,” or dancing l’Afrique.