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I found myself in a large , bare room . Emma Woodhouse , handsome , clever , and rich , with a comfortable home and happy disposition , seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence ; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her . So , I called myself Pip , and came to be called Pip . I suppose my money is as green as the next fellow 's , but I wonder whether they look at it that way . My stepson was three and could n't be left alone , and I did n't feel comfortable going to class without Pat , with Alice always managing to be next to me at the barre , making little sotto voce remarks , and contriving ways to get me to touch her . Coming back from a particularly good class one afternoon , I thought how enjoyable it had been and what a good time I had had laboring away at the barre and afterward in the center , and I reflected on how refreshed I had felt coming home after class - - and then , reading over what I have written here , I did n't sense that I had conveyed any of that . How do ya like them apples ? It is said that Pavlova , who was among the greatest of the Russian ballerinas , and who still danced in relatively soft shoes , is said to have had photographs of herself retouched to remove some of the tip . In a beginners ' class your teacher will also do the exercises , and if she does them where you can see her , she 's the one to watch . In any case , I was never in any danger of becoming a mirror dancer ; I looked so ridiculous as I floundered about that the mirror was always a torment to me and watching myself in it an onerous duty rather than an invitation to self-admiration . ( I have addressed myself to men , because ballet for women is not considered unusual in our culture and needs no justification . When we moved to Huntington , 30 miles away from the City , we stopped going , and my balletic interests were reduced to comparing notes with a neighbor who had taken classes herself and whose daughter was taking them somewhere on Long Island - - that and saying , occasionally , that some task was going to be Interesting in the Hamiltonian Sense . One afternoon I suddenly realized we were dancing to Floret sylva nobilis , from Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana , and I laughed aloud . It took longer than I anticipated .