Level-headed artist retires in a number of stages perhaps (6)
I believe the answer is:
arenas
'a number of stages perhaps' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'level-headed artist retires' is the wordplay.
'level-headed' becomes 'sane' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'retires' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'sane'+'ra'='sanera'
'sanera' reversed gives 'ARENAS'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for arenas that I've seen before include "Areas for events, sports perhaps" , "Central areas of, say, sports stadiums" , "Areas in centre of amphitheatres" , "rings" , "Areas of endeavours" .)