Ada Overton Walker came to be towards Valentines Day into the 1880 in the The fresh York’s Greenwich Village
Because the a young child she acquired dance knowledge of a Mrs. Thorp for the midtown Manhattan. As much as 1897, just after graduating out of Thorp’s dancing school, she toured temporarily which have Black Patti’s Troubadours. A spouse invited the lady in order to design to have a marketing that have Bert Williams and you can George Walker, who had simply obtained a knock in their vaudeville first within Koster and you can Bial’s Songs Hallway. She provided to model on advertisement and you may then entered the fresh men to help you dancing regarding the cakewalk finale. Immediately after joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a good critic into the Indianapolis Freeman proclaimed, “I’d merely noticed the very best girl dancer.” Having Grace Halliday she designed the aunt dancing work away from Overton and Halliday. They performed just like the collection of Honolulu Belles regarding the Williams and Walkers’ The policy Participants (1899), and you may from that point, Overton began to write once the an effective soloist with an increase of good spots. Throughout the music comedy This new Sons out-of Ham (1900) she done and you may danced “Skip Hannah out of Savannah” and you can “Leading Ladies”; as well as in its 2nd edition, “Society” and you will “Gleaming Ruby” which brought her jubilant recognition. Tom Fletcher remembered her just like the a musician whom did ragtime tunes and ballads equally well; so that as a dancer “which you may manage every little thing, with no matter if this is actually dollars-and-wing, cakewalk, otherwise some kind of grotesque dancing . . . she borrowed the latest show a cool gracefulness of movement unparalleled by the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
James Weldon Johnson had written you to she “got a reduced-pitched voice with a natural sob so you’re able to it, and therefore she knew making use of with telling impact when you look at the putting over a track” (Johnson 1933)
To your Summer 22, 1899, after the closing of A fortunate Coon, this new ragtime music revealed by Ann Charters given that “a great hodge-podge of all things on the ‘coon’ range of money-dance and you may ragtime tunes so you can selections in the grand opera,” Overton married George Walker; the commitment perform changes and you may elevate the latest cakewalk off a key African-Western anyone moving to your a black modernist term, a top artwork worth getting performed prior to royalty, into the white elite group, and on the latest performance phase.
You to definitely night if you are onstage, George Walker, playing brand new character off Bud Jenkins, turned sick
Williams and you can Walker’s Dahomey (1903) is one of the primary black musicals to learn new cakewalk’s conversion process. On it, Aida (she altered the brand new spelling from the lady label off Ada to help you Aida, title of one’s Haitian lwa from fertility) starred Rosetta Lightfoot having a presented solo, “I want to End up being a genuine Girls,” as well as the “Cakewalk Finale,” married of the the lady partner. “The newest range, the newest sophistication, this new assured ecstasy ones performers, whom bent more than backward up to the heads almost handled the ground, a feat demanding an unbelievable number of electricity, its eager prancing, almost within the slow motion, never have come equaled in this revel, let alone exceeded,” penned Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey are brought to London area, where it absolutely was presented within an order overall performance before King Edward VII on Buckingham Palace. United kingdom high-society observed the brand new Royal Family unit members which have a great pouring desire getting cakewalking. The company gone back to New york with a new form of the fresh new audio titled In Dahomey, and therefore opened from the Grand Opera (1904).
From inside the Williams and Walker’s 2nd inform you, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker is each other a dancer as well as the show’s choreographer. She are second checked during the and staged this new songs numbers for Bandanna Home (1908). Their attacks was basically later detected because syphilis. Inside 1909 the guy kept this new inform you, and his awesome part is actually rewritten to possess Overton Walker, which donned his showy dresses and performed his wide variety, including his significant tune, “Bon-bon Buddie.” Together with her partner’s condition slowly wearing down, and you will up against in which the girl coming lay, she picked to not renew her offer with Williams and you will Walker and you can alternatively registered the brand new shed out-of Bob Cole and you where to find Visakhapatnam wife may J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh new Reddish Moon (1909) in which she was checked in two audio numbers: “Pheobe Brownish” and you can “Pickaninny Weeks,” moving dollars-and-side toward chorus. She 2nd open during the The newest York’s American Theatre with a good vaudeville work presenting a different dance, the newest “Kara Kara,” otherwise dancing l’Afrique. During the 1910, she inserted the new Smart Lay, a black theatrical business, and you may appeared in Their Prize new Barber (1911).
