Rise of exotic dances (6)
I believe the answer is:
ascend
'rise' is the definition.
(I know that rise can be written as ascend)
'exotic dances' is the wordplay.
'exotic' indicates an anagram (an unusual form of the letters).
'dances' is an anagram of 'ASCEND'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for ascend that I've seen before include "Take off" , "Mount" , "Climb, rise" , "Get higher" , "Gain altitude" .)