I have not experienced the 'bellydance ghetto' you mention. The people that I have come across that know about BD (talking about the local people now) are all supportive and attend the functions when they can.
For the people that I talk to that are not familiar with BD they are only to excited to hear about the events, the type of shows that are put on and how, they like to hear about the many styles of BD and they concider it a legitimate dance form. they know what BD is of course, but they havent really thought much about it further than it being a middle eastern style dance or the 'I dream of Jeanie' sort of thing. One of the big comments I get from women is that they all say 'gee I have always wanted to do that" so I promptly tell them to sign up for a class lol. The men as can be expected give the ole ' ah huh!' look but I always explain to them what BD is, after that they want to come to a show and see what it is really like.

I guess it just depends.... It is like everything else I think, most people think that the world revolves around their own wee area. But us BD'rs? well we are a breed of our own and not frightened to step outside the box and experiment a bit. If someone else has something to say about it? oh well too bad..... they miss out on all the fun and wonderful people :-) all we can do is educate where we can and the rest can fend for themselves.

I guess I never thought about it that way. I don't know much about other dance communities, but I've often wondered if other dance types have the same type of community that we have. That if other dancers have two or more open dance (like Haflas) going on to expereiment and be around other who do their craft to learn from. I don't know but I don't think for. For me that's what so great about this community.

I have to wonder if the "larger dance community" is really all that interactive. AFAICT, the ballet, jazz, and modern dancers are the most "legitimate" in the eys of funders, and have the most crossover in terms of audience and dancers. I'd say there are several ghettos, including ballroom dance, hip-hop, and various ethnic dances. They are seen as "fringe" dances, and tend to attract a dedicated following.

While I enjoy watching dance of all sorts, I haven't been to see a non-belly-dance show in a LONG TIME - and I used to be a regular attendee. I've seen fewer plays since I took up dancing. So the problem is two-fold...the obsession that some people have for belly dance, and the relative lack of understanding for what bellydance IS in the general public.

Everyone's seen ballet. Everyone's seen ballroom. Most people could identify modern and tap dance if they saw it. But even with all the dance shows currently on TV, I think only 5% of the population has actually seen anything billed as bellydance...and even that exposure was likely brief and not of the best quality.

I think the sexy/sleazy reputation of bellydance is a secondary problem; a result of lack of exposure.

My observation in the music community is that virtually all creative energy and new ideas come from the "ghetto". The mainstream, socially acceptable arts become dull and derivative. Anything too new, exciting, or creative will likely get sent right back to the ghetto (or the avant-garde, which is just another ghetto). Mainstream production only slowly and carefully adopts ideas from the ghetto and the avant-garde.

What worries me more than being a ghetto is that bellydance will itself become cautious and derivative. You can see this in blues music... once a ghetto, it became incredibly influential on popular music. But traditional blues musicians found their new audience was basically white middle class intellectuals, with strong preconceptions about what constitutes "authentic". The blues itself stagnated as innovation was discouraged by commercial interests. Today, it's a dying form, kept alive by mostly white "blues jams" that are appallingly derivative and cliche'd.

So right now, bellydance is generating marvelous new forms, like tribal, and finding fusions. I worry about too much emphasis on tradition and "authenticity", which is generally the enemy of creativity. And we're already seeing it in the commercially successful bellydance projects, whether restaurant dancing or Bellydance Superstars... they're not about "community", they're about audience expectations. Styles and especially women's figures become much more narrowminded than the broad amateur community.

And finally, I think personal art is vital to human health, but it's often discouraged in our passive, commercial, "professional" culture. Bellydance is currently a gap in that cultural wall. Let's keep it that way if we can.