Overview

Before Opus1.io, The Fortino Studio was running on Google Sheets and guesswork. Discover how Anthony Fortino streamlined enrollment, empowered his teachers, and built a better experience for every family walking through his doors.

Interview Recording

The Opus1 Impact

When Spreadsheets Can’t Keep Up With Your Vision

Running a thriving dance school means managing a world of complexity: multiple class formats, age groups, skill levels, rotating trial students, waitlists, and a constant flow of parent inquiries. For one performing arts school offering dance, voice, musical theater, and private lessons in guitar and piano, that complexity had no real solution, until Opus1.io.

Before making the switch, Anthony Fortino, owner of The Fortino Studio, was managing enrollment on Google Sheets, handling scheduling through Google Forms, and running day-to-day operations almost entirely without dedicated software.

“As you can imagine, [it] was a pretty big challenge,” Anthony shared.

That challenge wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was a ceiling on growth.

The Dance School Difference: Why Generic Software Doesn’t Cut It

Dance schools operate differently than most education businesses. Classes span dozens of age groups and skill levels. Students regularly try out new sessions, move between classes, and need the flexibility to explore before committing. Without the right infrastructure, managing that fluidity falls on your front desk…or on you.

“There’s a pretty serious need for a receptionist,” Anthony explained, “and that need is for people to help manage just switching from class to class.”

This is the administrative trap that keeps dance school owners working *in* their business instead of *on* it. What they needed wasn’t just scheduling software; they needed a platform built to understand how dance schools actually work.

That’s exactly what they found in Opus1.

Three Ways Opus1 Transformed Day-to-Day Operations

  • 1. Parents Can Explore, Without Creating an Account First

    Anthony didn’t hesitate when asked what stood out most for parents: the ability to browse all class offerings, tuition costs, and availability without creating a login first.

    “Any other software that I have looked at, you have to go in, you have to create a full account within a portal before you can access and truly see what the class offerings are, what the payment plans are that are available.”

    With Opus1, that friction disappears. Parents arrive informed, confident, and ready to enroll, not frustrated before they’ve even signed up. For a dance school competing for enrollment in a crowded market, reducing barriers at the top of the funnel is a direct driver of growth.

  • 2. Teachers Have Real Visibility and Real Autonomy

    For Anthony, one of Opus1’s biggest wins has been for his teachers. Through the portal, they can see exactly who’s enrolled in their classes, check waitlists, take attendance, set availability, and manage sub requests, all without leaving a single platform.

    “They can see and have full visibility and full powers to be able to see it, which I find is very empowering for our teachers versus, ‘hey, show up and teach this class and here’s who’s gonna be here today.'”

    No more printed attendance sheets. No more emails asking who’s coming. No more manual data transfers. Teachers arrive prepared, informed, and focused on what they do best: teaching.

  • 3. Moving Students Between Classes Is Finally Easy

    For dance schools, student movement is constant. Trial enrollments, level changes, session switches — it’s a logistical puzzle that can consume hours of admin time each week. Opus1 handles it with a level of nuance the owner had never seen in another platform.

    One example stood out: when a student is trialing a class at capacity, Opus1 automatically holds that spot for the following week, so if the trial goes well and the student wants to enroll, their place is protected.

    “What a bummer it would be for the trial student to trial the class and then for next week, not be able to sign up for the class because someone else took it because it wasn’t holding their spot.”

    Details like this don’t happen by accident. They reflect a platform built by people who understand the real-world mechanics of running a performing arts school.

    “There’s a lot of detail, a lot of nuance… it shows how much thought is going into each piece of this software.”

More Than Scheduling Software

What Anthony and The Fortino Studio discovered in Opus1 is what dance and performing arts school owners across the country are finding: that the right platform doesn’t just save time. It changes what’s possible.

“It’s more than just a scheduling and booking software. It really handles everything.”

From self-serve enrollment that empowers parents, to teacher tools that reduce admin friction, to class management features nuanced enough to handle the real complexity of a dance studio, Opus1 delivers an end-to-end solution purpose-built for performing arts schools.

The result? You spend less time chasing down scheduling problems, and more time building the school you set out to create.

Ready to See What Opus1 Can Do for Your Dance School?

If your dance school is still relying on spreadsheets, generic software, or a patchwork of disconnected tools, there’s a better way. Opus1.io is the modern, end-to-end performing arts school management platform built specifically for schools like yours, with the depth, flexibility, and intuitive design to support your growth at every stage.

Start Your Free Trial → | Explore Dance School Features →

Opus1.io is the modern management platform for growing dance schools. Founded by school owners and built for school owners, Opus1 empowers music and dance schools to operate efficiently and grow.

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