While the a baby she obtained dancing tuition away from a good Mrs. Thorp inside midtown New york. As much as 1897, after graduating out of Thorp’s moving college, she toured briefly that have Black Patti’s Troubadours. A great girlfriend greeting their unique so you’re able to model for a publicity having Bert Williams and you can George Walker, who had merely obtained a bump in their vaudeville debut at the Koster and you will Bial’s Audio Hallway. She offered to model with the advertising and you will then inserted new guys in order to dance on the cakewalk finale. Immediately following joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, an excellent critic into Indianapolis Freeman stated, “I got only noticed best girl performer.” That have Elegance Halliday she molded this new cousin dance act out of Overton and Halliday. They did since the collection of Honolulu Belles on Williams and you may Walkers’ The insurance policy Participants (1899), and you may after that, Overton began to produce while the an effective soloist with large jobs. On the tunes funny The newest Sons of Ham (1900) she carried out and you will danced “Skip Hannah of Savannah” and you can “Best Lady”; along with its 2nd model, “Society” and “Gleaming Ruby” and therefore produced their particular jubilant recognition. James Weldon Johnson typed one to she “had a low-pitched sound which have an organic sob in order to they, which she knew how to use which have advising feeling in putting more a track” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their particular since an artist exactly who did ragtime music and you can ballads equally well; so that as a performer “whom could do Cartagena kvinner gifter seg med amerikanske menn everything, no count if it try dollars-and-wing, cakewalk, if not some kind of grotesque dance . . . she lent the fresh new results a neat gracefulness of movement unparalleled by the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
From inside the 1910, she registered this new Smart Put, a black theatrical business, and you will appeared in Their Award the new Barber (1911)
Toward June twenty-two, 1899, following the closing from A lucky Coon, this new ragtime sounds revealed of the Ann Charters since the “a hodge-podge of everything from the ‘coon’ line off dollar-dancing and you may ragtime melodies so you can options in the grand opera,” Overton married George Walker; its commitment manage alter and you will elevate brand new cakewalk away from a key African-American people dance for the a black colored modernist expression, a premier art worth are performed in advance of royalty, into the light professional, and on the latest show phase.
You to evening if you find yourself onstage, George Walker, to experience the new part from Bud Jenkins, became unwell
Williams and you can Walker’s Dahomey (1903) try one of the primary black musicals to discover the fresh cakewalk’s transformation. Inside, Aida (she changed brand new spelling regarding their particular identity out-of Ada so you can Aida, the name of one’s Haitian lwa from virility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot having a featured unicamente, “I do want to Getting a genuine Woman,” as well as the “Cakewalk Finale,” partnered from the their own spouse. “The brand new range, the brand new sophistication, brand new hoping euphoria of them performers, just who bent more than backward up until their heads nearly handled a floor, a task demanding an amazing amount of energy, their keen prancing, almost into the slow motion, have not become equaled in this revel, aside from surpassed,” wrote Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey is taken to London, where it actually was exhibited at a command efficiency ahead of Queen Edward VII at Buckingham Palace. British high society accompanied the new Regal Nearest and dearest having a beneficial pouring passion to have cakewalking. The firm gone back to New york with a brand new variety of brand new sounds titled From inside the Dahomey, hence open on Grand Opera (1904).
During the Williams and you can Walker’s second show, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker was both a dancer and show’s choreographer. She try second checked into the and you will staged the latest music amounts to possess Bandanna Belongings (1908). Their symptoms were afterwards detected since the syphilis. Into the 1909 the guy leftover the brand new tell you, with his character are rewritten to possess Overton Walker, which donned their fancy outfits and you can sang their amounts, including his significant song, “Bon bon Buddie.” Along with her husband’s reputation slow wearing down, and confronted with where their unique coming lay, she chose not to replenish their own bargain which have Williams and Walker and you may instead joined new throw away from Bob Cole and you can J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh new Reddish Moon (1909) where she try seemed in two music numbers: “Pheobe Brown” and “Pickaninny Months,” moving money-and-side to your chorus. She second established at This new York’s American Movie theater having a good vaudeville work offering a different sort of dancing, the brand new “Kara Kara,” otherwise dancing l’Afrique.