Dance with spirit, rating pirouettes (5)
I believe the answer is:
rumba
'dance' is the definition.
(rumba is a type of dance)
'with spirit rating pirouettes' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'spirit' becomes 'rum' (alcoholic spirit).
'rating' becomes 'ab' (both can mean a sailor).
'pirouettes' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (pirouette is a spin in ballet).
'ab' written backwards gives 'ba'.
'rum' next to 'ba' is 'RUMBA'.
(Other definitions for rumba that I've seen before include "number of steps" , "Afro-Cuban or ballroom dance" , "Ballroom dance of Cuban origin" , "Latin American dance" , "South American dance" .)