Bellydance Costuming Guide
 

Bellydance sometimes gets a bad rap. I believe this is partly due to inappropriate or poorly fitting costumes. One of my goals as a teacher is to help bring awareness to my students of proper costuming for our audience. We need to respect the Middle Eastern culture as much as possible by researching while also being creative.  

The variety of dance styles within the Middle East are wide. This is why we have various costumes for certain dances.  For example;  a Saidi or Baladi dress for a folkloric number and a Bedlah (bra and belt, with skirt and veil) for the Orientale performance. There are so many styles and types of costumes. These are just two examples and are pictured below for you. 

 

Be Mysterious

 It's best to keep some mystery with the costuming by not revealing too much. The bra should fit well and cover well, a little cleavage is fine but not so much to be distracting from the performance. Jewelry and other touches can help to soften and beautify the chest and neck.

Small Peeks

Showing too much skin can take away from the dance performance. You can still be sexy without being too revealing. In fact it's much sexier to show small peeks of skin (your best parts of course) using open leg harem pants and or skirts, big flowing sleeves with open shoulders or slits from shoulder to wrist. Ankle bracelets can lend a hand in sensuality, arm bands with beading, decorative shrugs and long fringe to help disguise any problem areas.

Create an Illusion

We’re creating an illusion not just with the movements but also with our costumes. A tummy cover is great at smoothing over and making our costume look much more pulled together and tasteful. I do require that my students use them in group performances. They add to the beauty and sensuality, much like lingerie. You can find classy ones with sheer glitter stockings, fishnet, or lace.

 

Take a Peek at Some Examples

Folkloric

Annette is modeling a Saidi dress. These were purchased from Dahlal International. These are considered a fantasy or glitzy dress for a folkloric piece. Her belt is unfinished in this photo. We added sequined fringe to the belts. A photo of the group is below with the finished fringe.

Silver Stretchy Material can be found at most JoAnne Fabrics to create the hip wrap in this photo. 

Sequins - we used strips of sequined fringe from an existing hip scarf purchased on Amazon (This can be purchased by the group to save money) We took strips of the sequins and sewed them onto the silver stretchy material. (pictured below) 

The headpiece is a silver headband intertwined with matching material from the dresses. Most of the dresses had to be hemmed. We used the excess material to weave into the headdresses. You may be able to find these pretty headbands at Walmart and online.

Barefoot or Footies - The Bloch brand footies are good.

Jazz Shoes - in case you are looking for support in class and for turns they can be used for performance too.

 

Oriental Costume / Bedlah

Orientale costume. Some of the girls in "Lorelie's Lovelies" bought previously used costumes and skirts and tweaked them to fit plus added their own touches.

Must haves for the costume are...

Sheer or fishnet tummy cover - You can look in the lingerie department of stores and or thrift shops for unique ideas. Or go to my Amazon shop . Dahlal Internationale has them too.

Lorelie's Lovelies Are Wearing Their Unique Bedlah

Costume Resouorces

Fantasy Style Dance for The Heard Opera House 

Midsummer's Night Everglades Enchantment Ball

June 22 2024 Lorelie's Lovelies performed for the Midsumme's Night Enchantment Ball at The Historic Heard Opera House in Arcadia Florida. It was spectacular!!! The dresses were simple renaissance style. We crafted our own Pom Pom Headpieces (thank you Nesma for your tutorial) and bought the corsets. Not a typical Middle Eastern Dance Costume, however for the theme of the event they were perfectly suited. 

NEW Folkloric Costume 

I made this costume for a new verison of a folk dance  to Banat Bahari (Girls by the Sea) for an upcoming hafla. The dress is made from an Indian Sari. The harems are a pair I made years ago and the headpiece is a headband covered in matching material and then wrapped with a coin belt. 

Fantasy Costumes for Neoandalusia Dance with Nesma 

These costumes are appropriate for dancing to Muwashsha. This is at Nesma dance camp in Malaga Spain. 2025 It starts with lots of flowing material cinched at the waist  then layered with skirts and pants in some cases.  A headpiece is created with leftover materials and ornaments. You can get very creative with this style of costume, mixing colors and materials together.