Because a child she gotten dancing tuition off good Mrs. Thorp inside midtown Manhattan. To 1897, after graduating out of Thorp’s moving school, she toured temporarily which have Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. A girlfriend acceptance their particular in order to model for a marketing with Bert Williams and you will George Walker, who had only scored a knock in their vaudeville debut at the Koster and Bial’s Audio Hallway. She agreed to design into ad and you will after that registered the fresh guys to moving in the cakewalk finale. Immediately following signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a beneficial critic to the Indianapolis Freeman announced, “I had only noticed the greatest girl performer.” With Grace Halliday she formed new aunt moving work regarding Overton and you can Halliday. They performed while the set of Honolulu Belles from the Williams and you may Walkers’ The policy Members (1899), and after that, Overton started initially to build while the good soloist with generous jobs. From the music funny The new Sons out of Ham (1900) she carried out and you may danced “Miss Hannah out-of Savannah” and you will “Best Lady”; along with its 2nd edition, “Society” and you will “Gleaming Ruby” which lead their unique jubilant recognition. James Weldon Johnson published you to definitely she “had a reduced-pitched sound with an organic sob to it, and therefore she understood the way you use with informing impression in the getting more than a tune” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their own while the a singer exactly who did ragtime songs and you will ballads equally well; and as a performer “which you may carry out every little thing, no number whether or not it is dollars-and-wing, cakewalk, or even some type of grotesque moving . . . she lent the new efficiency a nice gracefulness of motion unsurpassed by the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
From inside the 1910, she registered the newest Smart Lay, a black theatrical organization, and you will starred in Their Award this new Barber (1911)
With the Summer twenty-two, 1899, pursuing the closing out-of A happy Coon, the fresh ragtime musical discussed because of the Ann Charters as the “a beneficial hodge-podge of everything about ‘coon’ range out of buck-dancing and you will ragtime tunes so you can selection on the grand opera,” Overton partnered George Walker; their union create alter and you can elevate the cakewalk out of a center African-American anyone dance into a black modernist phrase, a leading ways value are did prior to royalty, on light elite group, as well as on brand new concert phase.
One to evening if you are onstage, George Walker, to experience the newest role from Bud Jenkins https://internationalwomen.net/no/guatemalanske-kvinner/, became ill
Williams and you may Walker’s Dahomey (1903) try among the first black musicals to realize the cakewalk’s sales. Inside it, Aida (she changed the new spelling out of their particular title from Ada to help you Aida, the name of your Haitian lwa off virility) played Rosetta Lightfoot having a presented solo, “I do want to Getting a real Lady,” additionally the “Cakewalk Finale,” hitched because of the her partner. “The brand new range, the fresh new sophistication, the fresh new in hopes ecstasy of those performers, who bent more backwards until their thoughts almost touched the floor, a task demanding an unbelievable amount of strength, its eager prancing, almost inside slow-motion, have not come equaled in this particular revel, not to mention surpassed,” wrote Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey is taken to London area, in which it was exhibited within a demand show ahead of Queen Edward VII within Buckingham Palace. British high-society adopted the newest Royal Loved ones which have a great gushing warmth to own cakewalking. The firm returned to Nyc with a new style of the new musical entitled From inside the Dahomey, hence exposed at Huge Opera (1904).
During the Williams and you can Walker’s next reveal, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker are each other a performer together with show’s choreographer. She are next searched during the and staged new music number to own Bandanna Land (1908). His periods were after recognized because syphilis. From inside the 1909 the guy kept brand new reveal, and his part try rewritten getting Overton Walker, whom donned their flashy gowns and carried out their wide variety, plus his significant tune, “Bon-bon Buddie.” Together with her husband’s standing slowly breaking down, and you can facing in which her future place, she chosen to not ever replace their particular contract that have Williams and you may Walker and you can as an alternative inserted this new throw out of Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s New Reddish Moonlight (1909) where she try checked in 2 musical quantity: “Pheobe Brownish” and you will “Pickaninny Weeks,” dancing dollars-and-side towards chorus. She second launched at the The fresh new York’s American Theater having a vaudeville operate offering an alternative dance, this new “Kara Kara,” otherwise moving l’Afrique.