Why floor projection works better than a diagram

When dancers learn formations from a diagram — a grid on a screen or a printout — they have to do a translation step: map the abstract 2D shape onto their physical position in the room. That translation takes mental effort, and it's a source of error. New dancers are slower at it. Even experienced dancers take a few repetitions to get their positions dialed in.

Projection removes the translation entirely. A position marker appears as light on the floor where the dancer is supposed to stand. There's nothing to interpret — they move to the marker. Positioning tightens up faster, and rehearsal time spent on "where am I supposed to be?" drops significantly.

What equipment you need

The hardware side is simple. You need:

A projector with enough lumens. For a studio with typical overhead lighting, 3,000–4,000 lumens is the starting point. If you're running stage lights during rehearsal, go higher (5,000+). Short-throw projectors mounted close to the ceiling need fewer lumens than long-throw units at the back of the room.

A mounting solution. Ceiling mount directly above the stage area is ideal — it minimizes keystoning and gives you the most accurate floor coverage. A front-of-stage mount at a steep downward angle works too, but requires more correction in software.

Calibration software. This is where Coryo comes in. You need software that can compute the homography between the projector's output and the actual stage surface, then map your formation positions into that coordinate space. Without calibration software, positions won't land accurately.

Setting up the projection: step by step

Once your projector is mounted and connected:

Place physical stage markers. Put a small visible marker (tape X, cone, etc.) at four known reference points on your stage — typically the four corners of your usable stage area.

**Open Coryo's calibration interface.** In the Projection tab, you'll see four on-screen points corresponding to the four corners of your stage canvas.

Match on-screen points to physical markers. Drag each on-screen point until the projected dot lands on the physical marker below it. Do this for all four corners.

Save the calibration profile. Coryo stores the homography for this venue. Future sessions load the saved profile — no recalibration needed until you move the projector or change venues.

Test with a known formation. Pull up a simple formation and verify that each dancer's position marker lands where it should relative to the stage.

Running a projection rehearsal

Once calibrated, a projection rehearsal works like this: advance through your formation sequence using Coryo's playback controls (or the mobile remote if you're on the floor with dancers), and each formation's positions appear as lights on the stage.

A few things make this smoother:

Use the mobile remote. Coryo's ProjectionRemote lets you advance formations from your phone. You can walk the floor with your team and change formations without going back to a laptop.

Show one formation at a time. Don't project the full sequence at once — project one formation, have dancers find their positions, then advance. Let them get anchored before you show the transition path.

Dim stage lights if possible. Projection is visible under normal studio lighting, but dimming the house lights makes markers significantly clearer, especially in large spaces.

Multi-projector setups for large stages

For wide stages, a single projector often can't cover the full floor at a useful resolution from a single overhead position. Two projectors with overlapping or adjacent coverage areas solves this.

Coryo supports multiple projectors in a single session, each with its own calibration profile. You set up each projector independently, calibrate it to its section of the stage, and they run simultaneously — the full stage floor is covered even if the projectors' individual fields don't match.

For most dance studios and mid-size performance spaces, one projector is sufficient. Multi-projector setups become relevant for stages wider than about 20 feet that have a single overhead mount point. Learn more about Coryo's projection system →

What Coryo handles for you

The hard part of floor projection is the software: computing the correct homography from projector coordinates to stage coordinates, handling keystone correction, saving and loading calibration per venue, and syncing projected positions to live formation data.

Coryo handles all of that. You bring the projector and mount it — Coryo does the math. Formation positions from your existing projects project accurately without any additional setup, export, or conversion.

The projection system is part of the Studio plan ($39/month). All other Coryo features — formation editor, rehearsal scheduler, video review — are available on the free and Pro plans. See all plans →