ARISTOCRATIC ACROBATS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 880, 25 January 1930, Page 30

ARISTOCRATIC ACROBATS

DUCHESSES AND ACTRESSES KEEP FIT MAYFAIR’S NEW CLUB I have just visited Mayfair's own gymnasium, writes a woman correspondent in the London “Daily Mail,” where duchesses, actresses, and the wives of eminent doctors keep fit and slim by practising strenuous physical “jerks” and health exercises. There were about a dozen women present when I arrived to watch a “keep fit” class perform difficult and acrobatic feats. Their costumes were scanty but attractive, consisting of either a brightly coloured bathing dress or a pair of diminutive shorts and a sweater. With almost military precision each woman jumped forward when her turn came, and springing smartly to attention awaited the instructor’s orders. In a low but compelling voice the instructor ordered each pupil to go on the parallel bars, climb through a rope ladder, and return to her place at a brisk trot. The Ayro-Wheel Then, after a vigorous game of leap frog, the class rested on fibre mats while two girls gave an exhibition with the ayro-wheel. They stood inside the metal wheel, with their feet strapped down and their hands grasping grips above their heads. After a few preliminary rockings of the wheel they sent it bowling down the hall, the human spokes turning head over heels with each revolution. One girl performed surprising feats on the trapeze, another swung. on rings from which she hung by her bent legs, while a third scurried up a rope to the ceiling, from which she descended head downward.