Why this comparison matters

FORMI, StageKeep, and Choreographic are three of the more commonly mentioned dance software tools. They each serve a specific use case well. The problem is that most dance teams don't have a single specific use case — they need to plan formations and schedule rehearsals and review video and track attendance and eventually take everything to the stage.

This comparison is honest about what each tool does, where it stops, and what teams who need more than one of those things should actually look at.

FORMI: formation grid, nothing more

FORMI is a grid-based formation planner. You place dancers on a stage canvas, build formation sequences, and share the output with your team. The editor is clean and functional.

What FORMI does well: - Fast, visual formation layout - Grid-based canvas that's intuitive to learn - Export and sharing options for formation diagrams

**What FORMI doesn't have:** - Rehearsal scheduling or availability collection - Attendance tracking - Video review with timestamped feedback - Animated transition paths between formations - Any real team collaboration beyond sharing a link

Who FORMI is for: Individual choreographers or directors who only need to map positions and share them. If scheduling, video, and attendance are already handled elsewhere, FORMI works for the formation piece.

Where it breaks down: As soon as you need to connect your formations to a rehearsal schedule, track who was at which session, or review footage as a team, you're back to copy-pasting across separate apps.

StageKeep: production management, not dance teams

StageKeep is a production management platform — call sheets, rehearsal schedules, scene breakdowns, production notes. It's designed for larger productions with multiple departments: directors, stage managers, lighting, costumes, and choreography as one piece of a bigger puzzle.

What StageKeep does well: - Multi-department production scheduling - Call sheet generation - Scene and blocking documentation - Contact management across a production

**What StageKeep doesn't have:** - A real formation editor for dance - Availability collection for dancers - Attendance tracking per dancer over time - Video review with timestamped comments for team feedback

Who StageKeep is for: Production managers working on theatrical productions where choreography is one element among many. It coordinates the broader production, not the dance team's workflow specifically.

Where it breaks down: For a dance team that rehearses independently — not as part of a larger theatrical production — StageKeep is the wrong level of abstraction. It doesn't have what dance teams actually need day-to-day.

Choreographic: notation and documentation

Choreographic is a movement notation tool. It's designed to capture, document, and preserve choreographic work — for archiving, reconstruction, or publication.

What Choreographic does well: - Structured movement notation vocabulary - Documentation format for preserving choreographic work - Useful for professional choreographers working in formal contexts

**What Choreographic doesn't have:** - A drag-and-drop formation editor for rehearsal use - Rehearsal scheduling or availability collection - Video review with team feedback - The real-time collaborative features a rehearsing team needs

Who Choreographic is for: Professional choreographers who need to formally document work for reconstruction, publication, or institutional archives. It's not a rehearsal management tool.

Where it breaks down: For teams who need to rehearse a piece over 12–20 sessions, Choreographic doesn't address the workflow. It documents what happened; it doesn't help you plan and manage the sessions where it happens.

How Coryo compares

Coryo was built for what none of these tools fully cover: the complete dance team workflow from first rehearsal to performance.

Formation editor: Canvas-based, with per-dancer labels, animated transition preview, multi-formation sequencing, and timeline sync. Comparable to or better than FORMI for the core editing, with transitions and team features that formation-only tools lack.

Rehearsal scheduling: Availability collection, overlap detection, session scheduling with goals attached — what StageKeep gestures at for productions but built specifically for dance teams.

Attendance tracking: Per-dancer, per-session, across the full project. Patterns visible without manual tracking.

Video review: Upload footage, leave timestamped comments, team visibility. Keeps review connected to the project, not scattered across separate links.

Floor projection (Studio plan): Projects live formation positions onto the physical stage floor using calibrated projectors. No other tool — FORMI, StageKeep, Choreographic, or otherwise — has this. Learn how the projection system works →

The bottom line: which tool for which team

Use FORMI if: You only need to map and share formation diagrams and you're managing scheduling/video/attendance separately elsewhere.

Use StageKeep if: You're managing a full theatrical production with multiple departments and choreography is one piece of a larger production puzzle.

Use Choreographic if: You're a professional choreographer who needs to formally notate and archive work for institutional or publication purposes.

Use Coryo if: You're running a dance team and you need formations, scheduling, video review, and attendance in a single connected platform — or if you want the option to take your formations to the stage floor with live projection. The free plan covers one project and up to 7 members, no credit card required. Compare Coryo plans →