Took to one's heels, embraced one's feminine connection and made a great show (8)

'made a great show' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I can't understand how one could define the other.

'took to one's heels embraced one's feminine connection' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'feminine' could be 'f' (abbreviation listed in Chambers) and 'f' is present in the answer.
'one' could be 'un' (northern English dialect form of 'one') and 'un' is found within the answer.
'took' could be 'ate' (eating is a kind of taking) and 'ate' is present in the remaining letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?