Group portraying risk taken by trapeze artists (5)
I believe the answer is:
nonet
'group' is the definition.
(group of nine musicians)
I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nonet that I've seen before include "Band's" , "Ennead" , "Musical group" , "Band of nine?" , "Composition for nine instruments" .)