After a dance Edward had aspirations (5)
I believe the answer is:
hoped
'had aspirations' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'after a dance edward' is the wordplay.
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'a dance' becomes 'hop' (hop is a kind of dance).
'edward' becomes 'Ed' (short for Edward).
'hop' put next to 'ed' is 'HOPED'.
(Other definitions for hoped that I've seen before include "Desired, with optimism" , "Desired, trusted" , "and 25: Anticipated" , "Aspired" , "Expected and wished" .)