MC beginning to twirl in dress? But this place is deserted (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
ghost town
'this place is deserted' is the definition.
(a ghost town is a deserted town)
'mc beginning to twirl in dress?' is the wordplay.
'mc' becomes 'host' (an MC is a host or presenter).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dress?' becomes 'gown' (gowning is a kind of dressing).
The initial letter of 'twirl' is 't'.
'host'+'t'='hostt'
'hostt' inserted into 'gown' is 'GHOST TOWN'.
'but' is the link.
(Other definitions for ghost town that I've seen before include "deserted place" , "where there's no-one around" , "Empty place" , "Deserted community" , "Old settlement, now deserted" .)