Ada Overton Walker was given birth to on the Valentines Date in 1880 into the The York’s Greenwich Village

Once the a baby she gotten dancing education of an excellent Mrs. Thorp during the midtown New york. To 1897, just after graduating away from Thorp’s moving university, she toured temporarily which have Black Patti’s Troubadours. A good girlfriend allowed their unique so you can model to possess a promotion which have Bert Williams and you can George Walker, that has simply scored a hit inside their vaudeville debut on Koster and you can Bial’s Songs Hallway. She wanted to model into the advertisement and you may after that inserted the latest men so you can dance on the cakewalk finale. Just after signing up for John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a beneficial critic with the Indianapolis Freeman stated, “I got just observed ideal girl dancer.” Having Grace Halliday she shaped new sister moving act away from Overton and you will Halliday. They performed as the pair of Honolulu Belles in the Williams and you may Walkers’ The policy People (1899), and you may following that, Overton started initially to build because good soloist with increased nice jobs. On the musical funny The new Sons out-of Ham (1900) she done and you may danced “Miss Hannah from Savannah” and you will “Top Lady”; plus the 2nd model, “Society” and you may “Gleaming Ruby” and this introduced their jubilant recognition. James Weldon Johnson typed you to she “got the lowest-pitched voice having a natural sob to help you they, and therefore she realized strategies for having telling effect during the getting over a tune” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher remembered their unique since the an artist just who did ragtime musical and you will ballads equally well; and also as a dancer “exactly who you will create everything, and no amount when it try dollar-and-side, cakewalk, if you don’t some sort of grotesque moving . . . she lent the fresh new abilities a cool gracefulness of motion unsurpassed by the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).

For the 1910, she joined the Smart Set, a black colored theatrical providers, and appeared in His Prize brand new Hairdresser (1911)

With the Summer twenty-two, 1899, after the closing from A happy Coon, brand new ragtime sounds demonstrated by Ann Charters because the “a good hodge-podge of all things regarding the ‘coon’ line away from dollar-dancing and you can ragtime tunes to help you alternatives in the grand opera,” Overton hitched George Walker; their commitment manage change and escalate the new cakewalk out of a core African-American group dance for the a black colored modernist term, a top art value being performed ahead of royalty, towards the light professional, as well as on the fresh concert stage.

You to night if you are onstage, George Walker, to experience the role regarding Bud Jenkins, turned into sick

Williams and you will Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is among the first black musicals to know the fresh new cakewalk’s conversion process internationalwomen.net blog. In it, Aida (she altered brand new spelling away from their own label away from Ada to Aida, the name of the Haitian lwa off fertility) played Rosetta Lightfoot with a featured solamente, “I want to End up being a bona fide Woman,” therefore the “Cakewalk Finale,” partnered by their unique husband. “The range, this new grace, new assured euphoria ones performers, exactly who bent more than backwards up until their brains almost touched the ground, a task demanding a great number of power, their keen prancing, almost from inside the slow motion, have-not been equaled in this particular revel, let-alone surpassed,” penned Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey are taken to London area, where it absolutely was showed on a demand show prior to Queen Edward VII during the Buckingham Castle. United kingdom high society accompanied new Royal Relatives having an excellent pouring enthusiasm to own cakewalking. The organization returned to Nyc with a new sorts of new musical called Into the Dahomey, and this started at the Grand Opera (1904).

From inside the Williams and Walker’s 2nd let you know, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker is both a dancer and show’s choreographer. She are 2nd seemed in the and you will staged the newest musical numbers to have Bandanna Home (1908). Their episodes was after identified as the syphilis. In 1909 the guy left the newest reveal, with his character was rewritten for Overton Walker, which donned their showy clothing and you may done his numbers, and their significant tune, “Bon bon Buddie.” Together with her husband’s updates slower deteriorating, and you can facing in which her upcoming put, she chosen not to ever renew their own price having Williams and Walker and alternatively registered the latest cast of Bob Cole and you may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh new Red Moon (1909) in which she is featured in 2 tunes numbers: “Pheobe Brownish” and “Pickaninny Months,” dance dollar-and-wing towards the chorus. She second unwrapped on The brand new York’s Western Movie theater having good vaudeville operate featuring a separate dance, the newest “Kara Kara,” or dancing l’Afrique.