Approach to do performance, tense inside (7)
I believe the answer is:
contact
'approach' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'do performance tense inside' is the wordplay.
'do' becomes 'con'.
'performance' becomes 'act' (act is a kind of performance**).
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'inside' indicates putting letters inside.
'con'+'act'='conact'
'conact' placed around 't' is 'CONTACT'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for contact that I've seen before include "Communication" , "Get in touch with" , "Connection" , "Touching" , "securing current passage" .)