As a child she received dance tuition out-of good Mrs. Thorp when you look at the midtown New york. To 1897, immediately after graduating of Thorp’s dance college, she toured temporarily having Black Patti’s Troubadours. A good girlfriend greeting their particular in order to design for a publicity which have Bert Williams and you will George Walker, who’d just scored a bump within vaudeville first during the Koster and you can Bial’s Audio Hallway Ekvador kadД±nlarla tanД±ЕџД±n. She agreed to design for the advertisement and then inserted brand new dudes so you’re able to moving about cakewalk finale. After joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic to your Indianapolis Freeman proclaimed, « I experienced just observed the greatest girl performer. » That have Grace Halliday she shaped the fresh new cousin dancing operate away from Overton and Halliday. It did just like the pair of Honolulu Belles in the Williams and Walkers’ The policy People (1899), and you may from there, Overton began to build because good soloist with big roles. On the audio funny Brand new Sons regarding Ham (1900) she sang and you may danced « Miss Hannah regarding Savannah » and « Top Woman »; along with their second version, « Society » and « Sparkling Ruby » and this brought her jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson published that she « had a decreased-pitched sound that have a natural sob in order to they, and that she realized strategies for that have telling effect when you look at the placing more than a song » (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher recalled their particular once the a singer who performed ragtime tunes and you can ballads equally well; so that as a dancer « just who you will perform almost anything, with no count in the event it is dollars-and-side, cakewalk, if you don’t some sort of grotesque dance . . . she borrowed the brand new performance a nice gracefulness of motion unparalleled of the anyone » (Fletcher 1954).
In the 1910, she registered the Wise Set, a black theatrical providers, and starred in His Award the latest Barber (1911)
To your Summer twenty two, 1899, following closing off A lucky Coon, the new ragtime songs revealed by Ann Charters as the « a hodge-podge of all things throughout the ‘coon’ range out-of dollar-moving and you will ragtime melodies so you can alternatives in the grand opera, » Overton partnered George Walker; the connection would alter and you may intensify the fresh cakewalk off a core African-Western men dance on a black modernist expression, a leading ways worth being performed just before royalty, toward white elite, as well as on the fresh concert phase.
That night if you are onstage, George Walker, to relax and play the brand new part regarding Bud Jenkins, turned into ill
Williams and Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is one of the first black colored musicals to realize the latest cakewalk’s conversion process. On it, Aida (she changed the newest spelling away from their unique identity away from Ada to help you Aida, title of one’s Haitian lwa from fertility) played Rosetta Lightfoot having a highlighted solo, « I wish to End up being a real Lady, » and the « Cakewalk Finale, » partnered from the their partner. « New range, the new sophistication, the new in hopes euphoria of them dancers, who bent over backwards up until its brains almost touched a floor, a task requiring a great amount of energy, the enthusiastic prancing, nearly within the slow-motion, never have been equaled in this revel, let alone exceeded, » wrote Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey was delivered to London, in which it was demonstrated on an order show prior to Queen Edward VII at Buckingham Castle. United kingdom high society implemented brand new Regal Relatives that have a good gushing desire to have cakewalking. The company gone back to Ny with a brand new sorts of the new sounds named In the Dahomey, and that unsealed during the Grand Opera (1904).
In the Williams and you may Walker’s second inform you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker was one another a performer additionally the show’s choreographer. She is actually second appeared for the and you can staged the new tunes amounts to possess Bandanna Property (1908). His symptoms was after identified once the syphilis. During the 1909 the guy kept this new let you know, with his role is rewritten having Overton Walker, exactly who donned their fancy clothes and you may performed his wide variety, along with their big track, « Bon bon Buddie. » Together with her partner’s status reduced deteriorating, and you can facing in which their unique upcoming put, she picked not to replace their own bargain with Williams and you may Walker and you will alternatively registered the newest cast of Bob Cole and you will J. Rosamonde Johnson’s New Yellow Moon (1909) in which she is checked in 2 music quantity: « Pheobe Brownish » and « Pickaninny Months, » moving dollars-and-wing on the chorus. She next opened at The latest York’s Western Theatre that have good vaudeville work offering an alternative dancing, the latest « Kara Kara, » or dance l’Afrique.