As far as belly dancing is concerned it transcends the boundaries of age or figure.
Even, mature or overweight women can also practice this dance form; also, the environment that a belly dancing class provides is supportive and appropriately non-judgmental.
When it comes to belly dancing, the capability to dance is more prioritized than figure or apparent condition.
As the other belly dancers wear exquisite dresses, you also can wear hip hugging or belly baring etc.
There is no restriction of age, shape or size in belly dancing, neither is flexibility a pre-requisite.
All you need to have is a passion for belly dancing and that requires interest and internal motivation.
If you are a mature belly dancer or you are a bit overweight, then you must choose the right kind of dress in order to look equally marvelous and enchanting.
Remember, the right kind of dress has the magical ability to camouflage anything.
If you try to dress in some exuberant style that has been basically designed for the younger dancers, you may actually make your real age prominent.
So, dress in a way that suits you and avoid exaggeration in costumes.
Dressing according to your shape and figure is very important and therefore you must be able to pick costumes that compliment not merely your figure but also your age and style.
In order to choose the right costume for yourself, look at yourself with critical eye and figure what must be appropriate for you.
The long and figure hugging sort of dresses actually go quite well with most figure types.
Underneath such dresses you can also wear some tight fitting figure shape wear that will surely help you and your costumes in shaping more.
You may want to choose semi sheer costumes if it looks appropriate.
So, do a bit of search about costumes that are available and then analyze your own body shape critically, then decide.
For those who are practicing belly dancing moves for some time, it is not a far off fact that belly dance costumes and coins play the key role in enhancing the overall impression.
When you closely observe an expert belly dancer you would find that the belly dancer costume is an important part of the performance along with the moves.
And, the shining gold elements on the costume are an integral part of the overall art.
It should be noticed that these dancers avoid wearing lots of jewelry that generally hinders their streamlined movements, but the coins are used extensively.
The focal areas like hip scarves and belly dance bras contain these coins in order to complement the movements that are special in these parts.
The origin is not known, but a large number of experts in this art think that they were first presented to dancers as tokens of admiration, and they started wearing them.
Some even believe that it originated with the gypsy dancers because they also follow same dancing tradition.
Without concern for their origin, the coins are now an integral part of these dancing costumes.
These coins are now used extensively in order to cover the hip scarves in order to highlight the hip movements during belly dancing.
The characteristics of the coins - tinkling sound and dazzling colors give an attractive appeal to the beautiful belly dance routine.
You can add them to the hip scarf in two ways.
In order to make a custom scarf, you can buy the coins and sew them.
You could also find pre-built scarves fitted with beautifully patterned coins.
However, if you are planning to make your own scarf with coins, then buy coins that already have holes.
You could either use the coins alone or add other embellishments like beads in order to get more intricate designs.