Jeffrey

A'isha,
I think perhaps we are getting much too involved in semantics here. What you are calling "authentic ethnic bellydance" and "bellydance", are they the same thing? When the rest of the world calls something by a certain name, you are certainly free to call it by any name you wish, but it will cause confusion when you talk or correspond with people. Darbukah, tabla, doumbek (mostly American), tareja, darbeleke, are just some of the same names for the very same instrument (but most of us know that). Zills, finger cymbals, etc. are another. If you ask any of the people that are even remotely involved in what I call "bellydance" to describe what bellydance is, I would guarantee that almost all of them would describe something that you would not consider bellydance. So I propose that you are not necessarily incorrect in your feelings about this dance form, but rather you have a very narrow view and perhaps another word or term would be more suitable for you to describe what it is that you do. Perhaps "authentic Middle-Eastern ethnic dance", because the entire rest of the world is going to be calling these different forms that we are talking about "bellydance".
Classical Ottoman court music and dance is very different. Classic Persian dance is very different. Classic Egyptian music and dance is very different. Traditional North African dance is also very different. None of these forms have any similarities to what either you or I would think of when we say the term "bellydance".
The whole origins of bellydance are vague, but the one thing that connects all of the theories to the origins of what we call "bellydance" has to do with a contact with foriegn travellers, mostly Europeans. The idea that this form of dance was in anyway practiced among women and for women going back in history is pure speculation and it could be true, but there is no concrete evidence of it. What we do know is that these dance forms were introduced into western society and they became the rage. People from the Middle-East saw an opportunity to earn an income and began to cater to western tastes. I'm not saying that some of the music and dance moves didn't exist in some manner before, but the whole idea of the single "bellydancer", the performance, drum solo, etc. is a relatively new phenomenon that came about after more contact with the west.
In a strictly Moslem society, the idea of a woman dressing anything like a typical bellydancer would be scandalous and frowned upon. I realize that the Mid-East is NOT all moslem, but those values did regulate the society. The whole issue of cabaret style dancing in clubs with the free flow of alchoholic beverages is also not quite acceptable behavior, even though we all know that Islamic people living in the west sometimes relax those restrictions.
I have had some contact with Dondi and her sister. She has studied and performed in Egypt, for Egyptians. Once for Omar Shariff for his birthday celebration. She does what the Egyptians consider to be excellent Egyptian dance. She was a longtime member of Bellydance Superstars