"wow, sounds like we're making hotdish"

Teehee--ouch...;-) For those of you who know confused by the term "hotdish", it's casserole other places. (I was soooo confused when I first moved to Minneapolis--I'd thought a hot dish was a warming plate and I could not understand why people talked about it like it was something you'd eat....)

As far as filtering...well, why *should* we wait for things to filter to us? Certainly we shouldn't assume that people here are any less creative than people on the coasts simply because we can't see the ocean. Let stuff from here filter out to the coasts too, I say. ;-)

As to Amina's original question...here's my take, but I speak only for my own perception...

My sense of the Minneapolis-St. Paul market is that it's definitely mixed and eclectic. There is a good Egyptian style community here, and also some Lebanese and American-classic and some fusion of those types with spanish, modern dance, and theatrical dance. Many teachers/dancers who have a lot of respect for those traditions and try to be well-versed in them, even if they do some fusion--a "know the rules before you break them" mentality. (Aside: Shira--I'm with you on the term cabaret. It means something veeeery different and specific in some places and cultures. In some cases, those perceptions of the term "cabaret" are much closer to burlesque or go-go dancing in tone than what most belly dancers that some call "cabaret dancers" do.) There is also a good tribal community in the metro and outstate Minnesota, but it's been different from a lot of the coastal tribal--both in feel and in costume. (Though with the rise of BDSS we're seeing a bit more of the "glam-tribal", solo-tribal, and Rachel Brice style than we did just a couple of years ago.) There used to be some strong Turkish pockets here, but they're less evident right now.

The largest schools in Mpls seem to teach a generalized "raks sharki" style (a mix of Egyptian, Lebanese and American-classic styles) with some folkloric content thrown in from time to time. There is, however, a program here that has teachers who do raks sharki but also ATS-fusion, and so their program may have a little more bent in that direction--I'm not sure. :-)

I've had the chance to get to know the Milwaukee scene in the past year...it's a little more segmented than Mpls. Here we have different styles and tastes, but I get the sense there's more cross-over between people/groups and a little more respect for the different styles and tastes than there is there...but a.) I don't know that that is actually true and b.) If it is, it's probably mainly because the Mpls community is a little older (the community is older not the dancers in it...) and a little more in contact with one another b/c of our Guild of Oriental dance.