Xtra Diary: Aerobics UK style in Trafalgar Square

Published: 2 April 2010

Aerobics UK-style

IT has to be said, Diary isn’t much of a gym-goer – but aren’t you supposed to sit on those balls? 

The rules were thrown out of the window as Trafalgar Square played host to Aerobics UK Style (for those remember the strangely compelling “Oz” series on Sky Sports) last week.

More than 150 women recruited through Facebook and Twitter threw down their yoga mats to take part in the mass 

work-out. The event was held ahead of the Vitality Show at Earl’s Court over the weekend.

Feather boas at the ready for big week

Don’t tell the Mary Whitehouse brigade but the West End’s feather boa and frilly knicker-makers are readying themselves for Burlesque Week.

In two weeks’ time, venues across Soho and Covent Garden will welcome the best in burlesque, marking its rise from the underground to the boundaries of  mainstream entertainment.

Now in its second year and with more than 100 performers from around the world, the shows will follow on from the success of burlesque queen Immodesty Blaize’s own film and the upcoming Cher/Christina Aguilera collaboration, which hopes to bring a box office audience to the transgressive art form.

It opens on April 20 in what should be champagne-popping style at the Café de Paris in Coventry Street.

Legendary producer Chaz Royal is looking forward to a week of sexy fun. 

He said: “It’s the biggest and best burlesque event in terms of performers and spectators ever to be brought to England’s great capital city. London Burlesque Week is full of colour, panache and excitement and is simply the greatest showcase of international burlesque talent on Earth.” 

It runs from April 20-25.  • To find out more visit www. london burlesquefest.com 

It’s elementary my dear… Ernest. 

Not the script as we remember it, but perhaps it could have been. An encounter between Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Marylebone more than 120 years ago has been marked by a green plaque.

The pair, who were relative unknowns at the time, met the American literary agent Joseph Stoddart, also the managing editor of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, at the Langham Hotel in Portland Place on August 30 1889. 

At the plaque unveiling, deputy leader of Westminster Council Robert Davis said it marked the meeting of two of the world’s most famous authors, which inspired them to produce two of history’s most renowned literary works, The Sign of Four and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

It was a “… vivid reminder of how in Westminster we are surrounded by a rich heritage of subtle moments in history, which in this case propelled two great writers from relative obscurity to contemporary fame,  and gained them a literary legacy that lives on in the public consciousness well   into the 21st century,” he said.