Cooperate in dance drama first (8)
I believe the answer is:
playball
'cooperate' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'dance drama first' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'dance' could be 'ball' (ball is a kind of dance) and 'ball' is found in the answer.
'drama' could be 'play' ('play' can be a synonym of 'drama') and 'play' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' is the link.
(Another definition for playball that I've seen is " Work willingly with others".)