Belly Dancing Costumes - add colour to your dance

Colours of belly dancing costumes and their meanings

When choosing belly dancing costumes it can help to think about the colour and also its meaning. There's lots of research about the effects different colours have both on the wearer and the audience. Why not use these guidelines to help you choose a belly dancing outfit that really helps you express yourself in every way?

Basic Advise

Keep it simple. Stick to maybe two main colours with perhaps one contrast. Classic colour combinations got that way for a reason. Remember metals are colours too so gold, silver, copper or bronze counts as one of your colours.

Gold

Gold makes us think of wealth and luxury of course. It looks great on warm skin tones and is especially kind to blondes. A gold bra set can look stunning against a tanned skin but it's not so flattering on paler, cooler tones. Still, gold can be used by just about everyone if it is carefully placed.

Silver

Silver produces lovely cool, sparkles. It shimmers and makes us think of water. Silver embroidery and shisha work enhances the flow and movement of costumes. It often works well for dancers with cooler skin tones.

Red

There are many shades of red each with nuances of meaning.Bright red can covey sensuality, passion, purpose risk taking and sometimes anger. It's a high energy colour and it demands to be looked at. Red with a more orange tone suggests a playful, creative spontaneous spirit. Dark, purple or blueish red induces a more sombre mood, serious yet still sensual. Choose your shade with care.

Almost any dancer can wear red it's just a matter of getting the shade right. Wrap the fabric, or a scarf of the same shade, round your neck and against your face and look in mirror. Ask yourself if it enhances your skin tone or clashes. As a rule of thumb dancers with naturally cool skin tones and dark hair can often take brighter, more vibrant reds. Dancers with warmer skin tones do better with reds which have a blueish tinge. Again use your skin tone and hair colouring to help you choose either gold or silver accessories with the red.

Green

Bright green suggests calm, requited love, fulfilled affection and inspiration while bluer shades of green invoke feelings of wholeness and harmony. Green can look fantastic but it can be a hard colour to get just right. Make sure you check it in the kind of light you will be dancing in as artificial light can change the way the fabric looks on you. Brighter greens often work better combined with gold or copper rather than silver. Surprisingly it can work well with a small amount of pink as an accent colour.

Blue

Blue expresses joy, independence and communication. Pure blue is a very calm colour and combines well with silver, making us naturally think of the flowing movements of water. It's not a great colour for inducing excitement but it can convey feelings of clarity, insight, and inner peace. This is particularly true of the more violet shades of blue.

Other Popular Colours

Other more unusual colours for belly dancing outfits include yellow, orange, and violet. These can of course look stunning but they do tend to be harder to wear. The best advise when choosing the colour of your belly dancing costumes seems to be keep it fairly simple.

Belly dancing outfits are not just for shows. One of the first things you need to decide when you start classes is what to wear. Some people find that wearing a specail belly dance outfit actually helps them detach from their every day life and get into the dancing. Others prefer to focus on just wearing something comfortable and perhaps a hipscarf.

Practice outfit suggestions:

 

Having a costume can emphasise your movements and gets you ready to dance. The belly dance outfit needs to allow easy movement and to be comfortable. There’s a lot to be said for using your practice outfit as the basis of your first performance costume. You get used to dancing in it and learn how it moves. You could try:

 

• A leotard with or without leggins and a hip shawl
• A longish skirt worn down on the hips with a belt over the top.
• Harem pants and scarf tied on the hips.
• A short t-shirt top with a skirt and a hip belt or scarf.
• Wear a leotard/leggings with a scarf (could be a bit warm!)
• A choli top and a long full skirt (again worn down on the hips) with a hip wrap.
• A short wrap-around tie-top with loose harem pant
• You may need a veil as well. This is usually between 3 and 4 yards of sheer fabric. To get the size right hold the veil across your shoulders, arms outstretched to the sides - flat out. The veil should just touch the floor.

Most people practice totally barefoot, although you could use footless sandals.

The best thing to do is ask your teacher and also look around you and see what others are wearing.

Don’t worry about your size, belly dancing outfits look great on all shapes and sizes.

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