As a child she obtained dancing education off a good Mrs. Thorp inside the midtown New york. To 1897, immediately following graduating from Thorp’s dance college, she toured temporarily which have Black colored Patti’s Troubadours. A beneficial girlfriend invited her so you can design to own a publicity having Bert Williams and you may George Walker, who had merely scored a knock inside their vaudeville debut on Koster and you can Bial’s Music Hallway. She accessible to model towards the ad and then joined the dudes to dancing on cakewalk finale. Immediately after signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a good critic with the Indianapolis Freeman proclaimed, „I experienced simply noticed the most effective girl performer.“ That have Elegance Halliday she molded this new sister dance work regarding Overton and you will Halliday. It performed once the group of Honolulu Belles from the Williams and Walkers‘ The policy Users (1899), and you can from there, Overton started initially to produce as a soloist with an increase of ample spots. In the audio comedy The newest Sons off Ham (1900) she sang and danced „Miss Hannah out-of Savannah“ and you will „Best Woman“; and in the 2nd edition, „Society“ and „Gleaming Ruby“ and therefore introduced their own jubilant recognition. James Weldon Johnson had written one she „got the lowest-pitched sound which have a natural sob to help you it, hence she realized making use of which have informing effect when you look at the placing more a song“ (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their own as a musician which did ragtime songs and you will ballads just as well; so when a dancer „which you will would everything, and no matter if this is dollar-and-wing, cakewalk, or even some type of grotesque dancing . . . she lent the overall performance a cool gracefulness of movement unparalleled of the anyone“ (Fletcher 1954).

Inside 1910, she registered the new Wise Lay, a black colored theatrical company, and appeared in Their Award the latest Hairdresser (1911)

Into June twenty-two, 1899, adopting the closing away from A happy Coon, the fresh new ragtime tunes demonstrated of the Ann Charters because the „a good hodge-podge of all things on the ‚coon‘ range off buck-dance and you will ragtime tunes so you can selection about huge opera,“ Overton married George Walker; their partnership manage changes and you will escalate the cakewalk of a center African-Western visitors dance on a black colored modernist phrase, a premier ways worthy of becoming performed before royalty, to your white elite, as well as on the newest show phase.

You to evening when you’re onstage, George Walker, to try out brand new character out-of Bud Jenkins, became unwell

Williams and you may Walker’s Dahomey (1903) try among the first black musicals to learn the brand new cakewalk’s conversion process. Inside, Aida (she changed this new spelling regarding their particular name from Ada so you’re able to Aida, title of your Haitian lwa out of fertility) played Rosetta Lightfoot with a featured solo, „I wish to Become a genuine Lady,“ and the „Cakewalk Finale,“ married from the their particular spouse. „The range, the new elegance, this new hoping euphoria of them dancers, which bent more than backward up until the thoughts nearly handled a floor, a task requiring an unbelievable level of stamina, their eager prancing, almost in the slow motion, have never already been equaled in this revel, not to mention surpassed,“ composed Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey try brought to London area, in which it had been shown on a command show just before Queen Edward VII in the Buckingham Palace. United kingdom high society accompanied the newest Regal Household members having a good pouring enthusiasm getting cakewalking. The business gone back to Nyc with a brand new version of the newest musical titled When you look at the Dahomey, and therefore launched in the Huge Opera (1904).

From inside the Williams and you may Walker’s second show, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker are one another a dancer and the show’s choreographer. She is second appeared when you look at the and staged the brand new musical amounts for Bandanna Home (1908). Their symptoms was in fact afterwards identified due to the fact syphilis. Inside the 1909 he remaining new let you know, and seksikГ¤s Korean naiset his part was rewritten for Overton Walker, who donned his flashy clothes and done his quantity, and additionally his biggest song, „Bon-bon Buddie.“ Along with her husband’s updates slowly deteriorating, and you will up against where their unique upcoming lay, she chosen not to ever renew her offer with Williams and Walker and you can rather inserted new throw regarding Bob Cole and you can J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh Yellow Moonlight (1909) where she was appeared in two sounds quantity: „Pheobe Brownish“ and you may „Pickaninny Days,“ moving buck-and-side into the chorus. She next opened from the Brand new York’s American Theatre having an excellent vaudeville act featuring a new moving, the fresh new „Kara Kara,“ or dancing l’Afrique.