Samuel Butler's first American dance (5)
I believe the answer is:
samba
'dance' is the definition.
(Brazilian dance)
'samuel butler's first american' is the wordplay.
'samuel' becomes 'sam' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'butler's first' becomes 'b' (sst letter of 'butler').
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'sam'+'b'+'a'='SAMBA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for samba that I've seen before include "moves from Brazil" , "Dance, originally from Brazil" , "Lively ballroom dance from Brazil" , "Dance music" , "it was launched in Brazil" .)