Group of soldiers holding large American dance (5)
I believe the answer is:
salsa
'dance' is the definition.
(type of dance)
'group of soldiers holding large american' is the wordplay.
'group of soldiers' becomes 'sas' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'large' becomes 'L' (eg in clothes sizes).
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'sas' placed around 'l' is 'sals'.
'sals'+'a'='SALSA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for salsa that I've seen before include "The Latin-American sound" , "Saucy dance" , "dressing" , "This could be hot" , "Hot dance - hot sauce" .)