Time to abandon historic ballet move (3)
I believe the answer is:
pas
'ballet move' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'time to abandon historic' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'to abandon' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'historic' becomes 'past' (similar in meaning).
'past' with 't' taken out is 'PAS'.
(Other definitions for pas that I've seen before include "... de deux, ballet step for two" , "Dance step" , "Office workers" , "A bit of ballet" , "Dad's" .)