HARTFORD - Her closet is a shiny, sequined, tinkling-sounding collection of dresses inspired by song.

For a Norwegian tune about butterflies, Laurie Babineau stitched gold Mardi Gras beads to a flesh-colored bra, wound beads around her waist and added white gauzy "wings." (She nicknamed it Mothra.)

For a 1950s Finnish song about a snake charmer, she sewed a tube dress out of a spandex snakeskin-print and made matching long gloves and a turban.

"I'm always outdoing myself at these," Babineau, 45, said. "I'm going to be praying the whole time it stays on."

Babineau's a Middle Eastern dancer, a performance artist, teacher, sculptor, costume maker and sometimes, she admits, a ham.

She gives belly dance lessons and performs under the name Indigo. Babineau's also in a Middle Eastern Dance ensemble called Flames of Indigo. (They've danced in public to an Arabic cover of the Bangles' "Walk like an Egyptian.")

A friend "calls me the rodeo clown of Middle Eastern dance," Babineau said.

A dancing outfit with a white bodice and flowing, bright turquoise cape - worn with a bright turquoise wig - is a nod to the colors in the Finnish flag. (She's half Finnish.)

Another outfit - in her signature colors, blue and orange - is a mix of gold coins, blue beads, intricate sequins and a long, flowing skirt.

Babineau cut her costume teeth on creepy. Long before the delicate belly dance ensembles came a sunny-side-up egg, a Victorian vampire and a cockroaches-crawling-out-from-under-her-skin costume, among others.

"I'm not a seamstress. I'm one of those people who failed home economics," she said, laughing. She doesn't work with patterns, and she's quick to point out some edges that she's hemmed with glitter paint instead of taking the time to sew. "Oh, I've got all kinds of tricks."