As a child she acquired dancing training of an excellent Mrs. AmerikalД± erkeklerle evlenmek isteyen Karayipler kadД±nlar Thorp in the midtown New york. Up to 1897, immediately following graduating regarding Thorp’s dancing university, she toured temporarily which have Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. A good girlfriend welcome their own to help you model getting a marketing that have Bert Williams and you will George Walker, who had only scored a hit inside their vaudeville debut within Koster and you can Bial’s Audio Hall. She provided to design on the advertising and you may subsequently entered the fresh guys in order to dance on cakewalk finale. Immediately following signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a beneficial critic toward Indianapolis Freeman announced, “I had merely seen top girl performer.” That have Sophistication Halliday she molded the fresh new brother dancing work off Overton and you can Halliday. It did because set of Honolulu Belles about Williams and Walkers’ The policy Users (1899), and you can from there, Overton began to develop since the a beneficial soloist with an increase of generous jobs. About audio funny This new Sons off Ham (1900) she performed and you can danced “Skip Hannah of Savannah” and you will “Best Woman”; along with its next release, “Society” and you may “Sparkling Ruby” and this delivered her jubilant recognition. James Weldon Johnson typed you to definitely she “had a minimal-pitched voice which have an organic sob so you’re able to they, and therefore she realized utilizing that have advising perception inside placing more a song” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their own since the a singer which performed ragtime music and ballads just as well; so when a performer “who you can expect to carry out every little thing, without number if this is actually dollars-and-side, cakewalk, if not some kind of grotesque dance . . . she lent the efficiency a cool gracefulness of movement unparalleled because of the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
In 1910, she inserted the newest Smart Place, a black colored theatrical business, and you will starred in His Prize the newest Barber (1911)
For the Summer 22, 1899, following closure out of A fortunate Coon, the ragtime songs demonstrated because of the Ann Charters since “an effective hodge-podge of the things in the ‘coon’ range from dollar-moving and you may ragtime melodies so you can alternatives from the huge opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; its commitment do alter and you may intensify the cakewalk off a center African-Western men moving into a black colored modernist term, a high artwork well worth are performed in advance of royalty, on white top-notch, as well as on the brand new performance stage.
One night when you’re onstage, George Walker, playing brand new part out-of Bud Jenkins, turned unwell
Williams and Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is actually one of the primary black colored musicals to find the newest cakewalk’s conversion. On it, Aida (she changed the fresh new spelling from their own name off Ada in order to Aida, the name of Haitian lwa of fertility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot with a presented solamente, “I would like to Be a bona-fide Woman,” in addition to “Cakewalk Finale,” hitched by her partner. “The fresh range, the latest elegance, brand new assured euphoria ones dancers, which bent more than backward up until the thoughts almost touched a floor, a task demanding an unbelievable amount of energy, the keen prancing, almost inside the slow-motion, haven’t become equaled in this revel, aside from surpassed,” authored Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey is actually brought to London, where it was presented within an order show just before King Edward VII from the Buckingham Palace. Uk high-society implemented the brand new Regal Loved ones which have good pouring enthusiasm having cakewalking. The organization returned to Ny with a brand new version of the new sounds named In the Dahomey, and that unsealed during the Grand Opera (1904).
Into the Williams and Walker’s 2nd inform you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker is each other a dancer additionally the show’s choreographer. She was 2nd featured when you look at the and you can staged the fresh new audio quantity getting Bandanna House (1908). Their attacks was basically after recognized since the syphilis. Within the 1909 the guy kept brand new tell you, and his awesome part was rewritten to possess Overton Walker, who donned his fancy attire and done his number, also their biggest tune, “Bon-bon Buddie.” Along with her partner’s standing slowly breaking down, and you will up against in which her upcoming lay, she picked never to replenish their particular offer having Williams and you may Walker and you may instead inserted brand new cast out-of Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The new Red Moonlight (1909) where she are featured in 2 musical quantity: “Pheobe Brownish” and you will “Pickaninny Weeks,” dance dollar-and-wing into the chorus. She 2nd exposed from the New York’s American Theatre which have a beneficial vaudeville work featuring another dancing, the fresh “Kara Kara,” or moving l’Afrique.