Philandering director avoids scandal in dalliance (8)
I believe the answer is:
flirting
'philandering' is the definition.
('flirt' can be a synonym of 'philander')
'director avoids scandal in dalliance' is the wordplay.
'director' becomes 'd'.
'avoids' is a deletion indicator.
'scandal' becomes 'dirt' (synonyms).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'dalliance' becomes 'fling' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dirt' with 'd' taken away is 'irt'.
'irt' placed within 'fling' is 'FLIRTING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for flirting that I've seen is " Playing at courtship".)