It is hard to believe that an art world such as that of dance, which had already been globalized in the early nineteenth century, was so closed to black protagonists.

And still, that's the way it is.

It was only in 2014 that Misty Copeland, star of the American Ballet Theater in New York, became the first black ballerina to play the title role of Swanilda in the ballet comedy "Coppélia", almost 150 years after the premiere at the Paris Opera.

In this respect, the new film adaptation of the ballet is long, long overdue in one respect.

Not only is Swanilda danced by Michaela DePrince, a black ballerina who came to the United States from Sierra Leone as a war orphan and now rushes from one high point of her dance career to the next.

It gets even better.

In this film adaptation, a white dancer plays the puppet Coppelia, and the fact that DePrince, as the fearless "Swan", fools old Coppelius into playing the puppet he created is the best part of the film.

Not only does he show all the black kids who see him that it's possible to have a great career in classical dance, but also that the color of their skin doesn't matter to the cast.

DePrince's self-assurance and naturalness suits the role well.

Swanilda (her name is simply Swan) is annoyed that her boyfriend is staring at another girl, Coppelia, dressed in pink, with a huge pompadour-esque wig and a stylish microbag.

A virtual coppelia

In the nineteenth century, a ballerina embodied the doll, a human being pretended to be made of wood, metal, paint, fabric and foreign hair.

The best versions play with the overturning of the comedic into the uncanny.

Is the scientist/artist a creator capable of transforming the artificial into the living?

The new hybrid film adaptation uses advanced technologies and presents a virtual Coppelia in a cartoon-like film set.

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Coppelius runs a beauty clinic, after which the residents of the small town lose more and more of their joie de vivre.

Here, too, a showdown against Coppelius and his avatars leads to a happy ending.

Franz realizes that no artificial being is like his Swan.

The film is co-directed by Jeff Tudor, Steven De Beul and Ben Tesseur.

Maybe it's the somewhat boring choreography by Ted Brandsen, whose company, the Dutch National Ballet, also dances here, maybe the pastel tones of the set and costumes, the brawny orchestral music by Maurizio Malagnini and the well-behaved acting even by the stars Darcey Bussell and Irek Mukhamedov that the result is slightly stuffy and sweet?

Probably everything together.

Daniel Camargo is the brave leader of a gang of sweethearts as far from West Side Story as a ballet class is from a stabbing.

What doesn't work at all are the Billy Girls by Dr.

Coppelius, female avatars stumbling through the film in a sort of goose-step on pointe, in a uniform that barely covers their bottoms, with body shapes like Barbie dolls.

In nineteenth-century versions, choreographers solved the task of making characterizations of people and automata appear interesting and believable in dance terms.

The film's problem is that the lack of attention the production pays to the choreography isn't compensated for by technological, visual, or acting qualities.