The old man going to the forefront leading English dance (6)
I believe the answer is:
pavane
'dance' is the definition.
(pavane is a kind of dance)
'the old man going to the forefront leading english' is the wordplay.
'the old man' becomes 'pa' (both can mean father).
'going to' says to put letters next to each other.
'the forefront' becomes 'van' (I've seen this before).
'leading' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'english' is 'e'.
'pa'+'van'+'e'='PAVANE'
(Other definitions for pavane that I've seen before include "Old dance" , "Slow formal dance" , "Stately Span. dance" , "Slow, stately dance" , "Pan Eva for her slow Spanish dance" .)