Because the a baby she acquired dance tuition away from a good Mrs. Thorp inside midtown New york. To 1897, once graduating from Thorp’s dance university, she toured briefly which have Black Patti’s Troubadours. An effective girlfriend welcome her so you can model to have a publicity with Bert Williams and you can George Walker, that has just obtained a bump in their vaudeville debut on Koster and Bial’s Tunes Hallway. She wanted to model with the advertisement and you will subsequently joined the brand new men so you can dancing on the cakewalk finale. Just after joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a good critic to your Indianapolis Freeman declared, “I’d simply noticed the best girl dancer.” Having Elegance Halliday she shaped brand new sibling dancing work of Overton and you can Halliday. It performed while the pair of Honolulu Belles regarding Williams and you can Walkers’ The insurance policy Professionals (1899), and you may following that, Overton started initially to build since a good soloist with increased good-sized spots. Regarding the musical funny This new Sons away from Ham (1900) she done and you will danced “Skip Hannah of Savannah” and you can “Top Woman”; and in its next model, “Society” and “Gleaming Ruby” and this brought their unique jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson authored you to definitely she “had a reduced-pitched voice which have a natural sob to it, and therefore she realized how to use having informing impact for the putting over a track” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher remembered their once the a musician exactly who performed ragtime sounds and you can ballads as well; so when a dancer “which you can expect to manage almost everything, no number if this try dollars-and-wing, cakewalk, otherwise some form of grotesque moving . . . she lent the newest show a nice gracefulness of motion unsurpassed from the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
During the 1910, she joined the newest Wise Put, a black theatrical providers, and you can appeared in Their Award brand new Hairdresser (1911)
To the Summer 22, 1899, following closing out-of A lucky Coon, the ragtime audio described of the Ann Charters due to the fact “a good hodge-podge of everything about ‘coon’ range regarding dollar-dancing and you may ragtime melodies so you’re kissbrides.com web sitemiz able to options from the grand opera,” Overton partnered George Walker; their partnership create alter and you can elevate new cakewalk away from a key African-American visitors dance with the a black modernist term, a premier ways worth becoming performed before royalty, on light top-notch, and on this new concert phase.
One night when you find yourself onstage, George Walker, to try out the fresh role away from Bud Jenkins, turned into sick
Williams and you will Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is one of the first black colored musicals to locate the latest cakewalk’s transformation. In it, Aida (she changed the latest spelling out-of their own label from Ada so you can Aida, title of your Haitian lwa of virility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot having a presented solamente, “I do want to End up being a real Lady,” together with “Cakewalk Finale,” married by the their own partner. “The newest line, the fresh new grace, the newest assured euphoria of these performers, just who bent over backward until its brains nearly moved the floor, a task requiring an incredible number of electricity, their keen prancing, almost in the slow-motion, never have been equaled in this particular revel, let alone surpassed,” published Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey try taken to London, in which it was showed from the a command overall performance in advance of Queen Edward VII at Buckingham Castle. United kingdom high-society used this new Regal Family members that have a great pouring passion to own cakewalking. The company returned to Ny with a new kind of the fresh music titled From inside the Dahomey, and this launched in the Grand Opera (1904).
Into the Williams and you can Walker’s 2nd inform you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker was each other a performer and the show’s choreographer. She try 2nd searched inside and staged the fresh new songs wide variety for Bandanna Property (1908). His symptoms was afterwards detected because syphilis. From inside the 1909 the guy left the inform you, along with his part is rewritten to possess Overton Walker, who donned their fancy clothes and you may done his numbers, plus his biggest song, “Bon bon Buddie.” With her partner’s standing slower deteriorating, and you will confronted with where their unique upcoming lay, she picked never to replace their price with Williams and Walker and you may alternatively registered this new shed away from Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The latest Purple Moonlight (1909) where she are seemed in 2 tunes amounts: “Pheobe Brown” and you will “Pickaninny Weeks,” dance dollar-and-wing with the chorus. She next open within New York’s Western Theater which have an excellent vaudeville operate presenting a special dance, this new “Kara Kara,” or dance l’Afrique.