DANCE REVIEW : CACCAMO STEALS JOFFREY ‘BEAU DANUBE’

She enters, eyes shining and a smile on her lips, as if she knows she’ll find first-love today. And she does. Later, she dances gravely with her new beloved--too deeply involved to smile--and when she nearly loses him to a rival, swoons delicately.

She is Dawn Caccamo: the best reason for being in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Sunday afternoon watching the second cast of the Joffrey Ballet’s production of “Le Beau Danube.”

Nobody else at this matinee outclassed the none-too-scintillating Friday night cast, but no matter: Caccamo immediately stole Leonide Massine’s ballet and ever-so-innocently, lyrically, delectably claimed it as her own.

While Carl Corry worked unevenly through the technical problems of the King of the Dandies, and Deborah Dawn flung herself into a spirited if sometimes broad charade as the Street Dancer, Caccamo danced with freshness, refinement and an inner glow that redeemed every virginal cliche of her role (the Eldest Daughter) and made it irresistible.

New to Philip Jerry’s “Hexameron,” Leslie Carothers found more emotional contrasts, musicality and sense of atmosphere in the ballerina role than her Friday counterpart. However, she also looked less secure technically--though some of her difficulties (the chancy supported turns early on, for instance) may have been Jerel Hilding’s responsibility.

Not ideally tall enough to partner the statuesque Carothers, Hilding also was not nearly ready to venture the flamboyant technique of his solos. Cruelly exposed by the matched passages with a fine male minicorps, he quickly became the afternoon’s major liability.

Paul Taylor’s familiar ensemble piece “Cloven Kingdom” completed the program.