Artist embraced by sailor in smooth dance (8)
I believe the answer is:
saraband
'dance' is the definition.
(I know that saraband is a type of dance)
'artist embraced by sailor in smooth' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'embraced by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'smooth' becomes 'sand' (sanding is a kind of smoothing).
'ra' put into 'ab' is 'arab'.
'arab' inserted within 'sand' is 'SARABAND'.
(Other definitions for saraband that I've seen before include "dance music" , "Stately dance" , "Old, courtly dance" , "Slow Spanish dance" .)