Dance, taking lead in balletic work (3)
I believe the answer is:
bop
'dance' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'lead in balletic work' is the wordplay.
'lead in' says to take the initial letters.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
The first letter of 'balletic' is 'b'.
'b'+'op'='BOP'
'taking' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for bop that I've seen before include "Strike" , "Dance of the 1950s" , "Form of jazz from the 1940s" , "Dance - hit (informal)" , "Dance to record" .)