Dear Midoria,
You can make practice thobes easily and cheaply. Adiemus has mentioned a pattern and I also have one produced by Vicki Horiuchi, along with info about the thobe, that I sell when I teach classes in Gulf dance. You do not even need the ones with all the embroidery to be dressed authentically as some of them are just very plain. The thobe is not actually necessary at all and most of the women that I know who are from the Gulf and Saudi Arabia do not use one, though someone occasionally does. My dance company often uses them on stage because they are so pretty. You can also do the dance with just a scarf, or a half thobe, or just whatever you are wearing.
Baharat!!, my company does a thing we call Khaliji Suite, in which we present several different versions of the dance, including one where the ladies just wear evening clothes. I want to incorporate half thobes into it eventually when I get the time to make some up.
There are two articles on my website that have to do with the dance if you are interested.
Raqs Azar. They are called
Are we confused yet? and Observations on Samri
Regards,
A'isha