Wife left when Arab forced a dance (8)
I believe the answer is:
habanera
'dance' is the definition.
(Cuban dance)
'wife left when arab forced a' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'left' is a deletion indicator.
'forced' indicates an anagram.
'when'+'arab'='whenarab'
'whenarab' with 'w' taken away is 'henarab'.
'henarab' is an anagram of 'habaner'.
'habaner'+'a'='HABANERA'
(Other definitions for habanera that I've seen before include "Steps" , "Cuban dance in slow duple time" , "Slow dance of Cuban origin" .)