Opposition of English female I encountered during social occasion (8)
I believe the answer is:
defiance
'opposition' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'english female i encountered during social occasion' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'encountered during' is an insertion indicator.
'social occasion' becomes 'dance'.
'e'+'f'+'i'='efi'
'efi' going inside 'dance' is 'DEFIANCE'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for defiance that I've seen before include "bold opposition" , "Refusal to comply" , "Open resistance" , "Challenging behaviour" , "confrontation" .)