Due to the fact a baby she obtained dance knowledge off a good Mrs. Thorp into the midtown Manhattan. Around 1897, after graduating out-of Thorp’s dance university, she toured briefly that have Black Patti’s Troubadours. An effective girlfriend enjoy their particular to design getting a promotion with Bert Williams and George Walker, who had only scored a hit within their vaudeville debut at Koster and you can Bial’s Sounds Hallway. She accessible to design towards the advertising and you will after that registered the brand new men to moving regarding cakewalk finale. Immediately after joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, an effective critic towards the Indianapolis Freeman announced, “I got simply observed the most effective girl dancer.” Having Grace Halliday she molded the brand new brother dance operate out-of Overton and you can Halliday. It did since the group of Honolulu Belles from the Williams and Walkers’ The policy Users (1899), and you may from that point, Overton started initially to develop because a good soloist with additional good roles. On the audio funny New Sons off Ham (1900) she carried out and you can danced “Miss Hannah out of Savannah” and “Top Woman”; plus in their second release, “Society” and you can “Sparkling Ruby” and that brought their unique jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson wrote one to she “had a reduced-pitched voice which have a natural sob to help you it, and therefore she understood ways to use which have telling feeling for the getting more a song” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher appreciated their particular as the a singer which performed ragtime tunes and you may ballads just as well; so that as a performer “just who you can expect to would almost anything, no count if this are money-and-side, cakewalk, if not some type of grotesque dance . . . she lent this new show a cool gracefulness of motion unsurpassed from the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).

Into the 1910, she joined brand new Smart Lay, a black colored theatrical team, and you may appeared in Their Honor the latest Barber (1911)

With the June twenty two, 1899, following the closing off A lucky Coon, brand new ragtime musical described because of the Ann Charters because “an effective hodge-podge of all things in the ‘coon’ range out-of money-dance and ragtime tunes so you’re able to choices on grand opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; their connection do transform and you may average age of marriage in the united states elevate the latest cakewalk away from a core African-Western someone moving to the a black modernist term, a premier ways worth getting did prior to royalty, with the light top-notch, and on the fresh concert stage.

You to definitely nights when you are onstage, George Walker, to try out the latest role out-of Bud Jenkins, became unwell

Williams and you can Walker’s Dahomey (1903) are among the first black colored musicals to learn the fresh cakewalk’s conversion process. Inside, Aida (she altered the fresh spelling from their term from Ada so you can Aida, the name of the Haitian lwa away from fertility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot which have a highlighted solo, “I would like to Feel a bona fide Woman,” plus the “Cakewalk Finale,” married from the their unique spouse. “New range, the fresh new grace, the new in hopes euphoria of these performers, whom bent more backward up to the heads almost touched the floor, an accomplishment requiring an amazing level of strength, their enthusiastic prancing, almost during the slow-motion, haven’t been equaled in this particular revel, aside from exceeded,” published Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey are taken to London area, where it had been presented within an order efficiency before Queen Edward VII at Buckingham Castle. Uk high-society implemented brand new Royal Family members with a great pouring desire having cakewalking. The business returned to New york with a new style of the brand new audio called During the Dahomey, and that opened on Grand Opera (1904).

Within the Williams and Walker’s second tell you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker are each other a dancer and also the show’s choreographer. She is 2nd seemed in the and you can staged the brand new songs numbers to have Bandanna Property (1908). Their periods had been after detected because syphilis. During the 1909 he left this new show, and his character is rewritten getting Overton Walker, who donned their showy clothing and you will done his numbers, plus his biggest song, “Bon bon Buddie.” Together with her husband’s reputation much slower wearing down, and you can up against where their future set, she chosen not to ever renew their package which have Williams and Walker and you can instead entered brand new cast regarding Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s This new Red-colored Moonlight (1909) where she try appeared in two tunes number: “Pheobe Brown” and you can “Pickaninny Weeks,” moving dollars-and-wing towards chorus. She next opened during the The latest York’s Western Theatre having a beneficial vaudeville operate featuring another type of moving, the new “Kara Kara,” or dance l’Afrique.