Just like the a baby she received dance education regarding an excellent Mrs. Thorp in the midtown Manhattan. Around 1897, shortly after graduating away from Thorp’s moving school, she toured temporarily with Black Patti’s Troubadours. Good girlfriend anticipate their so you’re able to model to possess a publicity which have Bert Williams and you can George Walker, who had merely obtained a hit in their vaudeville debut on Koster and you may Bial’s Music Hall. She accessible to model towards the ad and you can after that registered the latest dudes to help you dance on cakewalk finale. After signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic towards Indianapolis Freeman announced, “I’d simply seen ideal girl performer.” That have Grace Halliday she designed brand new sibling dance act off Overton and you will Halliday. It did since the pair of Honolulu Belles in the Williams and you may Walkers’ The insurance policy Users (1899), and you will following that, Overton started initially to produce given that a soloist with increased nice opportunities. From the audio comedy The latest Sons out-of Ham (1900) she carried out and you can danced “Skip Hannah out-of Savannah” and you may “Top Woman”; as well as in its second version, “Society” and you can “Sparkling Ruby” which lead their particular jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson blogged that she “had a minimal-pitched sound having an organic sob to help you they, and this she understood making use of that have informing impression when you look at the placing more a song” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher remembered their once the a musician exactly who did ragtime songs and you may ballads as well; so when a dancer “who you can expect to create every little thing, without matter if it are buck-and-wing, cakewalk, if you don’t some type of grotesque moving . . . she lent the latest overall performance a neat gracefulness of movement unsurpassed because of the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
From inside the 1910, she joined this new Smart Put, a black colored theatrical business, and you may appeared in Their Award the fresh new Hairdresser (1911)
With the June twenty two, 1899, after the closure regarding A fortunate Coon, the ragtime audio described of the Ann Charters since the “good hodge-podge of everything on ‘coon’ line off dollar-dancing and you may ragtime melodies to selections throughout the grand opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; its connection manage transform and escalate the latest cakewalk of a core African-Western someone dancing toward a black colored modernist term, a high art worthy of are performed just before royalty, into light elite group, as well as on this new concert stage.
One to night whenever you are onstage, George Walker, to experience the new part off Bud Jenkins, became ill
Williams and you can Walker’s Dahomey (1903) try among the first black colored musicals to find the cakewalk’s transformation. With it, Aida (she altered the fresh spelling from their unique title out of Ada in order to Aida, title of the Haitian lwa out-of fertility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot that have a presented solo, “I want to Getting a bona fide Lady,” while the “Cakewalk Finale,” hitched by the their unique husband. “This new line, the new elegance tapaa Dominikaanit naiset, the newest assured ecstasy of those dancers, which curved over backwards until their minds nearly touched the ground, an accomplishment demanding an amazing amount of power, their eager prancing, nearly within the slow-motion, have-not already been equaled in this particular revel, not to mention surpassed,” authored Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey was brought to London, in which it absolutely was demonstrated during the a demand results in advance of King Edward VII from the Buckingham Palace. United kingdom high-society implemented the brand new Regal Family members having a great gushing desire getting cakewalking. The organization gone back to New york with a brand new variety of the newest sounds named In Dahomey, and therefore established at the Huge Opera (1904).
For the Williams and Walker’s second show, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker was one another a dancer while the show’s choreographer. She is second checked within the and you will staged the brand new audio numbers for Bandanna Residential property (1908). Their attacks was after recognized while the syphilis. For the 1909 he leftover the fresh new tell you, with his role try rewritten having Overton Walker, just who donned their fancy attire and done his amounts, in addition to their significant tune, “Bon-bon Buddie.” Along with her husband’s standing slow wearing down, and you may facing in which their own future lay, she picked to not replace their particular price which have Williams and you may Walker and you will instead joined the shed out-of Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh Red-colored Moon (1909) in which she was searched in two sounds amounts: “Pheobe Brownish” and you can “Pickaninny Months,” moving dollar-and-wing with the chorus. She next open at the New York’s American Movie theater with a great vaudeville operate featuring a different dancing, the fresh new “Kara Kara,” or dancing l’Afrique.