Meeting her for the first time… dancing, having fun (even if you couldn’t do much talking) 🙂 probably made things pretty intense and exciting.
When you are already ‘friends”, some of the newness and attraction could be muted due to the nature of the friendship. If you have been friends, you may have seen the girl in different situations and so it isn’t the same as seeing a girl for the first or second time and knowing nothing about her. I think the excitement adds to the attraction.

You may truly like this girl more than others.

Don’t overthink this. The girl actually had some good advice. She said she wanted to be friends first and see where it goes.
Even though you want more than this, she is telling you that she is willing to pursue the relationship further. She wants to get to know you better. I would take this as a very good sign!

Now that you have told her how you feel, just step back and give her time to get to know you without feeling like you are pushy or want something from her. This will make you more attractive to her.

Attraction is one part letting her know you find her attractive and like her, and one part stepping back and giving her space to feel the attraction to you.

I know you probably know this, but acting needy, calling too much, texting too much and always telling her how you feel can make her attraction fade.

Let her have some time to see you for the person you are.

It sound like fun to me!!

Oh.. you asked if you should let go for something more deep and meaningful.
I am not sure I understand this question.
How do you know what is deep and meaningful unless you give it a chance to develop into that?

Give this a chance. If it is nothing but a friendship you haven’t lost anything. You are young. Get to know many girls so you can decide what kind of girl you want in life.
Even though this is probably far from your mind now, life has a way of creeping up on us and we can end up with someone we never meant to be with.