People always ask me where did you get those dance shoes, leggings, hip belt or costume, so this week I’m sharing some of my favourite places to shop for belly dance related goods, whether they be for the class room or stage.
Taste is personal, and so is fit, so please do only consider this as inpsiration for your own dance related retail therapy! Let me make it clear that I haven’t been paid to endorsing any of these – they are purely my subjective own preference…
Training/class room
I’m not a brand shop so usually get my clothes from many different outlets, but I do have a few names that I keep returning to, because I know the quality and fit is right for me.
Leggings:
Pro Touch – design rivals Sweaty Beaty at a fraction of the price! Intersport often has them, so look out for them in the sale.
Energetics – lovely design, but not quite as long lasting as the ones above. Again, look out for them at Intersport in the sale.
T-shirt:
Just Because – love their fit, quality and colours, as well as supporting their fantastic cause!
Dance shoes:
Bloch – have tried various of their design and currently love their
High Arc Jazz shoes.
Hip belts:
I don’t like noisy ones, so often pick them up when browsing souks at festivals and events. That way I can get a better feel for their quality and noise levels! Size also matters, as they can vary a lot in length, so try before you buy if at all possible.
eBay – but you may lose a lot of time and money browsing because there’s so much on here. Avoid the really cheap coin ones, as the don’t tend to last.
Stage
Professional belly dance costumes:
All my favourite costumes come from Eman Zaki.
If you can’t go to Egypt or see her when she’s in the UK, check out
Farida Dance and
Bellydance Boutique. They also do lovely costumes from other designers. Always try before you buy, because every costume is cut differently and by different seamstresses!
Bella Costumes, from Turkey, also do some amazing quality costumes. I had one made nearly 10 years ago, and it’s still looking and fitting great.
Character costumes:
If times allows I will always use my local charity shops, as well as amazon and eBay. Let your imagination go wild, but try to set yourself a budget, as it’s very easy to get carried away.
For my Bugsy Malone character I got the wig, shoes and shorts from Amazon. The leotard from eBay, which I then decorated with fabric from my local fabric shop to make the sleeves. The belt was from the M&S sale rail.
Music
Itunes and amazon music and getting increasingly better for arabic music. Use YouTube to locate artist and title, but always pay if you can. The artists need the money to live and make more music. So if you want them to also make fantastic tracks in the future, make sure to also pay for your dance tracks. Without them there’ll be no dance music for you!
Search for Top 10 Arabic Music, Arabic Top songs 2017 (or other year) to find a chancel with some inspiration. It’s a great way to stay up to date with what’s happening on the Arabic music scene, also also to get the names of new and upcoming artist.
Many also use
Shazam to ID music, and it’s getting increasingly better for Arabic music too.
If you prefer CDs and compilations then look at
Yasmina of Cairo has released a fanatics range of CD’s which I can only highly recommend, as they’re perfect for performances as well as class.
I hope you found some of my shopping tips useful, and that it will help you to maybe spend your money more wisely in the future. But as already mentioned, style and fit is very subjective, but starting from someone else recommendations may help you cut a few corners and save a few pounds.
If you have any favourite belly dance outlets that you’d like to share, please use the comments below to do so.
Happy shimming and shopping 🙂
Dorte
Did you miss my last post? Read it here: How to organise a successful Hafla
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