The problem we work on
Live performance runs on planning that mostly lives on paper, in group chats, and in one person's head. A choreographer carries the shape of a piece in their memory. A production lead keeps the running order in a notebook. Counts, formations, cues, music edits, costume changes and call times are scattered across a dozen places, and the version everyone is working from is whichever one they happened to see last.
It works, because people make it work. But it breaks in predictable ways. A change made in the studio on Tuesday does not reach the person building the lighting plot on Thursday. A routine that took months to set has to be rebuilt from scratch when the team changes. The knowledge that makes a production run sits with one or two people, and leaves when they do.
We think that planning deserves a proper home — one place a production team can build a show, keep it current, work on it together, and take it into the room with them.
Who we build for
Forma is built for teams who stage movement and have to plan it before they can perform it.
- Dance studios, companies and competitive teams
- Cheer and all-star programmes
- Marching bands and drum corps
- Theatre and musical theatre productions
- Live performance — events, showcases and touring work
The disciplines differ, the planning problem does not. Every one of them has to turn an idea into a sequence, a sequence into a rehearsal plan, and a rehearsal plan into something a room full of people can execute together.
How we approach it
Built with practitioners
The product is being developed alongside working choreographers and production teams rather than designed for them at a distance. If a feature does not survive contact with a real rehearsal, it does not ship.
The room comes first
Planning tools are useless if they cannot come into the studio. What we build has to work on the devices people actually carry, in venues where the connection is poor or absent.
A team, not a person
A production is collaborative long before opening night. The work should be shared between the people who need it, at the point they need it, without anyone having to ask for the latest version.
Careful with people's work
Choreography is authorship. The material a team puts into Forma belongs to that team, and how we handle it is set out in our privacy policy.
Where the product is
Our first product, Forma, is in active development and being tested privately with a small group of production partners. It is not yet open to the public, and we are not taking general sign-ups.
We would still like to hear from you. If you run a studio, a programme or a production team and the problem above is familiar, write to us — both to hear when Forma opens up, and because the people who describe the problem clearly are the ones who shape what we build.
Press, partnership and supplier enquiries go to the same address.
Company details
- Legal entity name
- FORMA STUDIO 360 LIMITED
- Entity type
- New Zealand limited company
- Incorporated in
- New Zealand
- NZBN
- 94-29053986160
- IRD number
- 149-803-513
- Registered office
- Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, New Zealand
- Telephone
- Available on request
- Website
- formastudio360.com
This page is published by FORMA STUDIO 360 LIMITED and is the company's official website. Company details are recorded on the New Zealand Business Number register. More about the company is on the company page.
Contact
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand