In one of our class discussions we talked about how the way people stand and the way they position their bodies is the reflection of their culture. Ever since that class I have been noticing to the way I stand and my body position compared to other people. I have noticed that when I stand it is in the first position turned out, (as shown in the picture above), while most other people stand in the parallel position. I probably adopted this body practice of standing in turn out when I was in ballet. I consider ballet a culture within itself because it demands our bodies to do many things that “normal people” wouldn’t have to do. For example while most Americans are known to have bad body postures, in the world of ballet this is not allowed. If you don’t have amazing turnout and great posture you are considered a terrible dancer and the other dancers will look down on you. When I first started ballet I had terrible body posture and the other dancers took notice. I was actually ordered by my dance teacher to sit up and suck in wherever I go so I would become a better dancer and have good posture like the other girls. I definitely realize we all have docile bodies, because I did what my teacher said. I practiced my turn out and I stood up straight where ever I went because if I didn’t correct my posture, I wasn’t considered by my teacher or my peers as a good dancer and I was teased. Also, I loved watching the professional ballerinas dance and they all had good posture and great turn out. Because I wanted to be like these dancers, I forced myself to be like these girls to the point that even now after four years since my last ballet class I stand tall with my toes pointed in turnout. Plus, even after all this effort I put in to making myself look like a good ballet dancer, I ended up quitting because I was in a “pursuit without terminus” situation. No matter what I did I could never stand tall enough or push my feet far enough out into turnout. I could never have an “intelligible body” by the ballet world’s standards and I don’t think that this is even possible because you are never going to be thin enough, pretty enough, flexible enough, or have enough turnout to be in an amazing ballerina.