Surprisingly liberal American taking in pole dancer (9)
I believe the answer is:
ballerina
'dancer' is the definition.
(ballerina is a kind of dancer)
'surprisingly liberal american taking in pole' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' indicates an anagram.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'taking in' indicates putting letters inside.
'pole' becomes 'n'.
'liberal'+'a'='liberala'
'liberala' is an anagram of 'balleria'.
'balleria' going around 'n' is 'BALLERINA'.
(Other definitions for ballerina that I've seen before include "girl on point duty" , "Pavlova?" , "Danseuse" , "girl from the Kirov?" , "agile performer" .)