As a baby she received dancing instruction regarding an effective Mrs. Thorp from inside the midtown New york. Up to 1897, immediately after graduating from Thorp’s moving university, she toured briefly with Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. A great girlfriend enjoy their particular to help you model having a marketing having Bert Williams and you will George Walker, that has merely scored a hit in their vaudeville introduction during the Koster and you will Bial’s Tunes Hall. She agreed to design toward ad and you can after that inserted the new dudes so you can dance in the cakewalk finale. Just after joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic towards Indianapolis Freeman proclaimed, “I’d merely seen the greatest girl dancer.” Which have Grace Halliday she molded the fresh new cousin moving act regarding Overton and you may Halliday. It performed once the group of Honolulu Belles throughout the Williams and you may Walkers’ The insurance policy Professionals (1899), and you may after that, Overton began to establish given that an effective soloist with increased substantial spots. In the sounds comedy The newest Sons out of Ham (1900) she sang and you will danced “Skip Hannah of Savannah” and you may “Leading Lady”; as well as in the second model, “Society” and you will “Sparkling Ruby” and therefore delivered their own jubilant recognition. James Weldon Johnson typed you to she “had the lowest-pitched voice having an organic sob to help you it, hence she understood utilizing with informing feeling for the putting more a tune” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their particular once the a singer which did ragtime sounds and you may ballads just as well; so that as a performer “just who you are going to carry out everything, no number whether it try buck-and-wing, cakewalk, if you don’t some sort of grotesque dancing . . . she lent brand new show a neat gracefulness of movement unsurpassed of the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).

From inside the 1910, she entered brand new Smart Put, a black theatrical business, and you will appeared in Their Prize the new Barber (1911)

Into June twenty two, 1899, following closure regarding A lucky Coon, the fresh ragtime sounds demonstrated by the Ann Charters since “an excellent hodge-podge of the things on the ‘coon’ range of money-moving and you may ragtime tunes so you’re able to alternatives regarding the huge opera,” Overton married George Walker; kauniita Slovakialainen naiset their relationship would transform and you can escalate brand new cakewalk regarding a center African-Western everyone dance towards the a black colored modernist expression, a premier art worth are performed prior to royalty, on the white elite group, as well as on the new performance phase.

One nights whenever you are onstage, George Walker, to tackle brand new role from Bud Jenkins, became sick

Williams and you can Walker’s Dahomey (1903) are one of the first black colored musicals to learn the newest cakewalk’s conversion process. In it, Aida (she changed the fresh new spelling from their title off Ada to help you Aida, title of Haitian lwa out of fertility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot which have a presented solo, “I would like to Become a bona fide Lady,” therefore the “Cakewalk Finale,” partnered from the their unique spouse. “The fresh new line, the new grace, the in hopes euphoria of them performers, just who bent more than backward up until the thoughts nearly touched the floor, a feat requiring an incredible quantity of power, their eager prancing, nearly inside the slow-motion, have-not been equaled in this revel, aside from exceeded,” blogged Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey was delivered to London, in which it actually was demonstrated from the a command show just before Queen Edward VII in the Buckingham Castle. United kingdom high society implemented this new Royal Nearest and dearest with a great pouring desire to own cakewalking. The business returned to New york with a new sorts of the fresh musical titled Into the Dahomey, and this established within Grand Opera (1904).

For the Williams and you will Walker’s 2nd inform you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker is each other a performer and also the show’s choreographer. She is actually next checked inside and you will staged the fresh new songs amounts getting Bandanna House (1908). Their symptoms was basically later on recognized while the syphilis. When you look at the 1909 he remaining this new let you know, with his part are rewritten to own Overton Walker, whom donned his flashy clothes and you can performed his quantity, in addition to his big tune, “Bon bon Buddie.” Together with her partner’s standing slow extracting, and faced with where their own upcoming place, she picked not to ever replenish their particular contract having Williams and you may Walker and instead registered the brand new cast out of Bob Cole and you will J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The Red-colored Moonlight (1909) where she is actually searched in two audio wide variety: “Pheobe Brown” and you may “Pickaninny Days,” moving buck-and-wing towards chorus. She 2nd unwrapped at the The latest York’s Western Theatre having an effective vaudeville act offering an alternative dance, the fresh “Kara Kara,” or dance l’Afrique.