Ada Overton Walker, buck-and-wing, cakewalk virtuoso and choreographer regarded as one of the first African American choreographers on the American stage was born Ada Wilmon Overton on February 14, 1880 in Greenwich Village, New York City, the second child of Pauline Whitfield, a seamstress, and Moses Overton, a waiter. She was a child who seemed to have danced before she walked, fond of dancing in the streets with a hurdy-gurdy, until her parents decided she would receive formal dance training. Around 1897, after graduating from Thorp's Dance School, she toured briefly then an opportunity came when a girlfriend invited her to model for vaudeville advertisement at New York's Music Hall. She eventually the cast of Williams and Walker's Octoroons, in which once critic declared of her performance, "I have just observed the greatest girl dancer."
In 1899 Overton married George Walker and they became the leading cake-walking couple of the new century; in the cakewalk, they had found a quintessential black modernist expression. In 1903, Williams and Walker production of In Dahomey was one of the first to realize the cakewalk's transformation. Ada soon changed the spelling of her name, from Ada to Aid. In that production, Ada and George's cakewalk was one that has never been matched. As the writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten noted of their performance, "The line, the grace, the assured ecstasy of these dancers, who bent over backward until their heads almost touched the floor, a feat demanding an incredible amount of strength, their enthusiastic prancing, almost in slow motion, have never been equaled in this particular revel, let alone surpassed." In 1903, Dahomey was presented as a command performance before Edward VII at Buckingham Palace, in the private quarters of the royal family. British high society followed the royal family for a gushing enthusiasm for cake-walking. When Overton Walker returned to New York, she used her reformed cakewalk choreography as entrée to elite white society. She promoted cakewalk's grace and eloquence by terming it "the modern cakewalk."
In 1908 Overton Walker was featured in Williams and Walker's Bandanna Land, and her dancing continued to draw attention for its gracefulness. Soon after Bandanna Land opened, a new solo, "the Dancing of Salome," was added for her. One evening in 1908 while onstage in Bandanna Land, George Walker, became ill and left the show in 1980. His role was rewritten for Overton Walker, who donned his flashy male clothes and sang his numbers. By July 1911, six months after her husband died, Overton Walker had formed a new vaudeville act with one male and eight female dancers. She impersonating her late husband, and she performed the new dance craze "The Barbary Coast" in close embrace with her new male partner. From 1912 until her heath in 1914, Overton Walker continued to choreograph for two black female dance groups.
In 1912, Overton Walker danced "Salome" in a spectacular vaudeville performance at Oscar Hammerstein's Victoria Theater in New York. She also rejoined Bert Williams for the annual Frog's Frolic, appearing onstage with Bill Robinson. In 1913, Overton Walker's dream to produce her own show was realized with a company of twelve at the Pekin Theatre in Chicago. In 1914, she switched from African-style dance to ballroom dance in her vaudeville act, with her new partner Lackaye Grant. The tango picnic, in July of that year, she and partner Grant performed their ballroom dance act to much acclaim. The tango picnic was Overton Walker's last public appearance.
Aida Wilmon Overton Walker died in New York, New York on October 11, 1914 of kidney disease.
As the foremost African American female stage artist, Overton Walker established a black cultural identity onstage that became a model by which African American musical artists could gain professional acceptance on the American theatrical stage.
Comments
Post a Comment