Short lad with different role in dance (6)
I believe the answer is:
bolero
'dance' is the definition.
(I know that bolero is a dance)
'short lad with different role in' is the wordplay.
'short lad with' becomes 'bo' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'different' indicates an anagram.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'role' is an anagram of 'oler'.
'bo' placed around 'oler' is 'BOLERO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bolero that I've seen before include "Maurice Ravel's most famous work" , "Spanish dance and short open jacket" , "Spanish dance; Ravel's best-known work" , "Jacket not covering waist" , "Dance -- work by 9" .)