Due to the fact a child she received moving tuition away from a Mrs. Thorp during the midtown New york. To 1897, shortly after graduating off Thorp’s moving college or university, she toured briefly which have Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. A great girlfriend desired their own so you can design to have a publicity which have Bert Williams and you can George Walker, that has merely scored a knock in their vaudeville first on Koster and you may Bial’s Musical Hall. She wanted to model for the offer and you may after that joined the new guys to help you dancing regarding cakewalk finale. After joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic towards Indianapolis Freeman declared, “I’d merely observed ideal girl performer.” Which have Elegance Halliday she shaped the new sister dancing work out-of Overton and you may Halliday. It performed because the collection of Honolulu Belles regarding the Williams and Walkers’ The insurance policy Users (1899), and you will after that, Overton started initially to produce as the an effective soloist with additional nice spots. Throughout the tunes funny This new Sons of Ham (1900) she performed and danced “Skip Hannah off Savannah” and you may “Leading Lady”; along with its 2nd edition, “Society” and you may “Sparkling Ruby” and that put their particular jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson had written you to definitely she “had a decreased-pitched voice with an organic sob to they, which she understood making use of which have telling impression in the placing more than a tune” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated her because a singer whom performed ragtime songs and you may ballads just as well; so that as a performer “which you can expect to would every little thing, without number if it are buck-and-wing, cakewalk, if you don’t some type of grotesque moving . . . she lent the abilities a cool gracefulness of motion unparalleled by anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
In 1910, she inserted the latest Wise Lay, a black theatrical team, and you can starred in His Award the brand new Barber (1911)
To the Summer twenty two, 1899, pursuing the closing from A happy Coon, brand new ragtime musical demonstrated because of the Ann Charters given that “a hodge-podge of all things on the ‘coon’ line from buck-dancing and you can ragtime tunes so you can choices on the grand opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; the union would changes and you may elevate this new cakewalk from a key African-Western anyone dancing to the a black modernist phrase, a premier ways well worth becoming performed ahead of royalty, with the light top-notch, as well as on the latest show phase.
You to definitely night while you are onstage, George Walker, to play the fresh new role away from Bud Jenkins, became unwell
Williams and you can Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is actually among the first black musicals to see the cakewalk’s sales. With it, Aida (she changed the latest spelling out of their title away from Ada to Aida, title of one’s Haitian lwa regarding fertility) played Rosetta Lightfoot which have a featured solo, “I do want to Getting a bona-fide Lady,” additionally the “Cakewalk Finale,” hitched by their partner. “The new range, new elegance, brand new assured ecstasy of those performers, exactly who curved more backwards up until their heads nearly moved the floor, a feat demanding an incredible number of fuel, its eager prancing, nearly inside slow motion, have not been equaled in this particular revel, not to mention surpassed,” typed Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey is delivered to London area, in which it had been exhibited during the a command efficiency just before Queen Edward VII on Buckingham Palace. United kingdom high society observed the brand new Royal Nearest and dearest with a beneficial pouring desire for cakewalking. The organization gone back to New york with a brand new types of new songs called For the Dahomey, and that unsealed at the Grand Opera (1904).
For the Williams and Walker’s next reveal, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker was one another a dancer as well as the show’s choreographer. She try next featured when you look at the and you may staged the new musical amounts having Bandanna Residential property (1908). His symptoms was basically later on detected while the syphilis. Into the 1909 the guy remaining the fresh inform you, and his awesome character is rewritten getting Overton Walker, just who donned their showy dresses and performed their numbers, as well as his biggest song, “Bon-bon Buddie.” With her partner’s condition much slower extracting, and you can faced with where their own upcoming lay, she chosen to not ever replenish their unique contract with Williams and you can Walker and you can as an alternative entered the brand new shed from Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s Brand new Yellow Moon (1909) where she are seemed in 2 music number: “Pheobe Brown” and “Pickaninny Days,” moving buck-and-side towards the chorus. She 2nd established in the The latest York’s Western Movie theater having a beneficial vaudeville work offering a different moving, the fresh new “Kara Kara,” otherwise moving l’Afrique.