The hip-hop dancers in their baggy shorts or pants and cool caps. The ballet dancers in their perfectly arranged outfits and the breakers in their loose clothing, hats and protective pads.

If you want to be taken seriously as a street or hip-hop dancer is it important to dress in a particular way? Well let's take a look at the way they dress.

In ballet everything is tucked away neatly with shoes designed for maximum function. In hip-hop dance there's lots of baggy clothes. You could say it's less to do with function although of course trainers are a lot more suitable considering that it can be a very bouncy and energetic dance style.

The way street dancers dress is more to do with where the dance emerged from. It's part of hip-hop so it would make sense that they dress in a hip-hop fashion albeit without all the bling which might not be suitable for dance!

However it's by no means necessary to dress the way most hip-hop dancers dress. If that's not you or you feel uncomfortable dressing that way you don't have to follow what everyone else does. It's about the dancing and how you express yourself through that.

In many fields a particular clothing is used either because it helps with the job or because it is part of the culture and where it emerged from. With hip-hop it is less about the clothing helping you but rather that a lot of early hip hop pioneers dressed this way.

Of course if you're performing in a dance troupe or have a show of some sort then it may be appropriate to dress a certain way to make it obvious what type of dancer or character you're portraying.

In practise though you can wear what you like. It's not the fancy trainers, or the cool oversized clothes or fancy makeup that makes a great dancer, it's the dancer that makes the dancer. Image is part of the package you offer and can make you seem like the real article but it's not everything.

It could be compared to business. The fanciest suits cannot hide a terrible businessman but a brilliant businessman will be successful even with the discount-store suit.

If Michael Jackson wore clothes that worn torn and ripped from head to toe, that wouldn't stop people noticing what a great dancer he is. Use image to compliment yourself not as a crux.