This document summarizes Maeve Curley's dissertation on the experience of performers in arenas throughout history. It discusses the evolution of arenas from ancient Greek stadia to Roman amphitheaters to modern Spanish bullrings. The Greek stadia were simple running tracks that evolved to include seating areas. The Roman amphitheaters were influenced by Greek theaters and formed oval shapes to seat more spectators closer to performances involving gladiators. Finally, bullrings evolved from rectangular shapes to circular designs in Spain to create a unified audience experience and intimate atmosphere for bullfights. Throughout, the document examines the relationship between performers and audiences in shaping the design of arenas.

1. A Dissertation by Maeve Curley

2. The aim of my dissertation is to uncover the experience of a performer in
an arena. The Arena is a powerful place full of energy. I will look at the
pure form of the arena through out my dissertation. The arena is made
up of not just the building. The audience and the performer complete the
arena. They charge the arena with energy. Like the structure of an atom
the performer on the floor of the arena is like a proton in the nucleus of an
atom. The energy and movement of the audience is like electrons encir-
cling the nucleus. The performer is the central part of the Arena. The atom
is incomplete without the nucleus. The arena is incomplete without the
performer.
The arena has existed throughout history. The evolution of the arena has
been influenced by culture and politics. Thus causing the simple form of
the arena to be modified throughout history. The performer also influenced
the shape of the arena. The audience’s relationship with the performer is
also a coherent part to the transformation. The form has been pressed
into an oval, squeezed into an ellipse to adjust to the circumstances of the
performance.
Introduction
Olympic Games 1906, Panathenaic Stadium Greece.
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Contents
Introduction
Greek Stadion
Roman Arena
Plaza de Toros
Relationship of Performer and Audience
Conclusion

3. “Best of all things is water;
But gold,
Like a gleaming fire
By night,
Outshines all pride of wealth beside.
But,
my heart,
Would you chant the glory of the games,
Look never beyond the sun
By day for any star shining brighter
Through the deserted air,
Nor any contest than Olympia greater to sing.”
Greek Stadion
The origins of the Arena date back to the Greek Stadion. Stadion de-
rived from Greek ‘to stand’ Historians believe Greeks were influenced by
Egypt’s monumental architecture in honour of their Pharaohs. Religious
construction, including temples and stone columns, served as an initial
architectural link to the earliest arena designs. There is evidence as
early as 2650 BC of an Egyptian athletics track. The tomb of King Djoser
included a flat running surface with two large B-shaped masses of stone
fifty-five meters a part. Historians suggest these stone masses would
have acted as altar and turning posts, which the Pharaoh would have run
around. It was a ritual racecourse.
The Greek epic poet Homer refers to a “running place” or “race” in the
ninth century BC in his literature. The Greeks built these running places to
honour their Gods. The earliest constructions were quiet simple and only
contained enough seats for judges and dignitaries. The remaining specta-
tors stood along the embankment of the “running place”. It was a simple
track surface with a grand stand built into an earthen embankment. It was
located in close proximity to an altar to honour the Gods.
In Elis, Greece the sanctuary of Olympia lies along the banks of the
Alfeios River. It is a rich fertile site where olives grow. These olives were
used for the victory crowns of those who championed the Stadion. Her-
cules planted these olives the Greeks believed. This was the beginning
of the Olympic Game’s. Historians believed Greek Athletic competitions
played a part in funeral ceremonies and ceremony’s marking the begin-
ning of adulthood. Pindar the poet of ancient Greece writes how Hercules
founded the games to mark one of his achievements and atone an act of
violence and unite the realm in celebration. All war was ceased every four
years to celebrate the Games. The Games created a sanctuary where
amends were made for acts of violence.
The sacred Grove of Zeus Atlis, was where the races were held. It was
an irregular quadrangular area approximately two hundred meters on
each side, and walled except to the north, where it was bounded by the
hill of Cronus. Temples and public buildings dominated the site. Athletes
competed in a “stadion” race. This race started one hundred and ninety
two meters from the altar of Zeus where a priest stood. The priest signaled
the start of the race by raising a torch. The winner claimed the torch on fin-
ishing and lit the ashes of the sacrificed animals in front of the altar. This
“stadion” distance was the basis on which the Greek Stadion was based.
Later a seating area was built a simple structure along the incline of the
hill looking onto the racetrack.
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4. A circuit was introduced when a second race was added the ‘Diaulos’ this
was the distance of two ‘Stadion’ or two lengths. The ‘Hippodromos’ was
four lengths. This was an ancient running track. The Greek spectators fol-
lowed the direction of the runners from start to finish line. All heads would
turn in unison to watch the race. This performance was linear creating a
long linear space. This is why the Greek ‘Stadion’ has a long rectangular
form.
These sanctuaries like Olympia were located outside urban centers and
away from contested territories so the Games were hosted on neutral
grounds. During the Late Classical Period and Early Hellenistic period
the Games moved out of the Sanctuaries to a nearby location possibly to
provided more room for spectators. These stadia had the capacity to ac-
commodate the entire population of their given Greek cities.
This concave space was established when the spectators were seated
on a sloping hill above the running athletes. The gradient of the Greek
Stadions was a gentle slope. Adlo Van Eyck discusses this shape through
‘The Horizon and the Shifting Centre’. “People seated concentrically in a
hollow, gazing inward towards the horizon. Two kinds of centrality. Two
ways of being together or alone. Though the hill reveals that the hollow
may conceal: that man is both centre-bound and horizon-bound (the
horizon and the shifting centre, the centre and the shifting horizon). Both
hill and hollow, horizon and centre, are shared by all seated concentrically
either way; both link and both lure.” This concave hollow is the arena.
Depending on where the spectator is seated they experience the space
differently. There is one focus for the audience on one central place and
what occurs there. When thousands of people are gathered in an arena
arrangement where no one can hide from the gaze of the crowd. This
situation creates a unique effect the beauty and astonishing spectacle is
based on the spectators themselves. They become the spectacle.
Now known as the Panathenaic Stadium it still stands today in Athens and
has been a running place since 566 BC. Athletes once competed nude on
a sand running track with simple stone starting lines. Now the track is blue
tarten with athletes competing dressed in Nike sportswear. Instead of run-
ning in honour of Zeus, the Greek Goddess Nike’s name is emblazoned
across many athletes’ chests.
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5. Roman Arena
Instead of the rectangular dimensions of the Greek running track the Ro-
man Arena evolved from the circular shape of the theatre. Joining two Ro-
man theatres together formed the Roman Arena or amphitheatre. Derived
from Greek ‘Amphi’ for double. The semicircle of the Roman theatre forms
an oval arena. This results in an ellipsoid space, which allowed spectators
to be seated closer to the performance.
Instead of linear races gladiator contests involved movement through the
entire arena. The Greek sanctuary with it’s focus on mythic gods, were
replaced by a Roman focus on civic leaders. “The Colosseum was a bril-
liantly constructed and enclosed world, which packed emperor, elite and
subjects together like sardine in a tin. It was a magnificent setting for a
ruler to parade his power before his citizen subjects.” The first displays of
gladiators in Rome happened in 264 BC as part of the funeral celebrations
of a leading aristocrat. It was no only fighter versus beast but it was also
senator versus emperor.
Vitruvius discusses the arrangement of seating in Roman Theatre Scaurus
built 695 BC “The curved cross-aisle should be constructed in proportion-
ate relation, it is thought, to the height of the theatre, but not higher than
the footway of the passage is broad. In short, it should be so contrived that
a line drawn from the lowest to the highest seat will touch the top edges
and angles of all seats. Thus the voice will meet with no obstruction. The
different entrances ought to be numerous and spacious, the upper not
connected with the lower, but built in a continuous straight line from all
parts of the house, without turnings, so that people may not be crowded
together when let out from shows, but may have separate exits from all
parts without obstructions.”
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6. “The voice executes its movements in concentric circles,
But while in the case of water ripples moving concentrically horizontally on
a plane surface,
The voice not only proceeds horizontally, but also ascends vertically by
regular stages.
Therefore as in the case of the waves formed in water, so it is the case of
the voice, the first wave,
When there is no obstruction to interrupt it, does not break up the second
or the following waves,
But they all reach the ears of the lowest and highest spectators without an
echo.”
Sound was of importance in the Arena as was sight. In the Arena the plan
of the seating or standing tiers strongly conditions the sightlines available
to spectators. The true sightline towards the point of focus is distinguished
from the geometric sight reference point, which is determined by the
orientation of a seat fixed to a stand. The focus is always inward. The di-
vergence corresponds to the horizontal angle between the neutral position
of the head and the concentric gaze of the spectator towards the centre of
the field.
It is the first rule of any spectacle that the audience is as important an ele-
ment as the display itself: we go not only to watch, but also to watch other
people watching, and to be seen watching ourselves. The audience is
part of the show. In the Roman arena the Roman people were seated in
hierarchical ranks according to status, which was in an effect a microcosm
of the Roman citizen body. Civic status determined where you sat. In the
front rows senators sat closes to the arena, behind them sat the knights
and at the back sat the slaves, non-citizens and women. The only women
entitled to sit at the front were the ‘Virgin Priestesses’. Those that sat at
the front sat on moveable seats as you move back it went from marble to
brick to timber seating for the slaves. Assigning the women to back meant
it was unlikely women of a higher social ranking would sit among the
slaves.
From the lines etched into the arena we know that the roman spectator
was only allowed forty centimeters of seating area. From seat back to seat
back was seventy centimeters. The Roman people were smaller in stature
but this is still a tight fit.
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7. The entrances and exit routes for different classes of seating were
planned in a complex pattern so that citizen’s of different status were kept
rigidly separate. There were eighty entranceways into the Colosseum. The
four on the main axis were for the performer and the emperor and sena-
tors. The two on the long axis to the east and west are assumed to be the
performers entrance and exit. The emperor and senators used the two
entrances on the shorter axis. The circulation throughout replicates the
form of the oval. There are four circular annular corridors that give access
to different parts of the arena and to the stairways leading up to the higher
levels.
The number of corridors decreases as you move further up the building.
Senators took route A, which led them straight to their seats on the podi-
um at the front. While the masses took route B, which meant going straight
to the stairs, and climbing to the top. This resulted in the senators avoiding
brushing shoulders with the masses. The more power you had the closer
to the centre you sat the less power you had the further back you go. The
closer electrons are to the nucleus the more energy they have.
A circular structure such as a Spanish ‘Corrida’, would have been ideal
space in term of all the spectators getting a good view of the spectacle.
However the hierarchy of the roman seating arrangement meant the view-
point of the senator was prioritized over the slave. Neither would a circular
structure maximize the available viewing space for gladiatorial spectacles
inside the forum. Form.
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8. Before the present Colosseum was built and wooden structures were built
for gladiator contests in the ‘Roman Forum’. Since these were only tempo-
rary structures and were dismantled after each contest the Romans tried
out different shapes in plan. The original space between the two great
basilicas was an irregular trapezoid. The seats would have followed the
lines of the Basilicas possibly ending in circular tribunes. The space was
very long approximately one hundred meters and wider at one end then
the other. This would have resulted in a skewed viewpoint for spectators
seated at the corners. Gladiatorial games took place in the Roman Forum
as early as 216 BC until 46 BC when it paved over and put out of use
during the reign of Augustus. The Roman Forum was the centre of Roman
Public Life. The façade of the Colosseum is visible from the Roman Forum
today.
The plan of the Colosseum is a series of concentric circles, leading in from
the vast perimeter wall to the space of the arena in the centre. The perim-
eter wall is arranged in four-arcaded storey’s, each which corresponds to
a floor level on the interior. On the first three storey’s are open archways,
with half columns in three different orders of architecture, Tuscan on the
ground floor, Iconic on the first and Corinthian on the second. Comment
of different columns in relation to those that sat there. “The simplicity of
the oval form is perceptible in the most pleasing way to the eye, and every
spectator serves as a measure of the vastness of the whole. And when
the building is seen in an empty state, there is no longer an indication of
its scale, and one hardly knows any longer whether it is large or small.”
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9. From the Roman elliptical Arena is the circular Spanish Corrida. How did it
become a circle. Seville’s bullring Plaza de Toros seats fourteen thousand
people, but it gives a great sense of intimacy. The seating is all low and
quiet near the ring. The hierarchy of seating went from ‘Sol’ (sun) and
‘Sombra’ (shade). However the architecture of the ring created a moral
unity among the public. This is experience in the moments of utter silence
and the unified shouts of ‘Olé’. Plaza de Toros is located on Baratillo
hill. Originally a rectangular Corrida existed but this was replaced in 1749
by a circular construction. In 1761 ‘ochavas’ were added, each ‘ochava’
consisting of four arches.
In 1765 the inner façade was built a box consisting of two parts the access
gate for successful matadors to exit and the theatre box itself. This was
reserved for the royal family. Despite its size, the acoustics allow you to
hear everything wherever you are sitting. The main entrance is the Puerta
del Príncipe, the Princes Gate.
A wooden barrier, which runs round the arena, forming a protective cor-
ridor between it and the public stands, is the ‘Barrera’. Enthusiasts regard
the Barrera seats as the best seats, particularly those on the ‘Sombra’ side
the shaded side, below the presidential box. They are also the most ex-
pensive. The remaining seats the ‘Tendido’ in the Sol are public seating.
There are steps at the foot of the ‘Barrera’ called ‘Estribo’ these enable a
matador more easily to climb to safety. The sanded expanse in which the
bullfighting takes place is known as the ‘Ruedo’. The sun plays a part in
the Matadors performance. The Spanish say, “El sol es el major torero.”
The sun is the best bullfighter, and without the sun the best bullfighter is
not there. He is like a man without a shadow.
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10. The bull enters through the ‘Toril’ the dark chute that leads from the pens
to the inside of the bullring, which is located in the middle of the ‘Sol’
seats. There is an intense relationship between the matador and the
audience. The ‘Brindis’ is a speech, which the matador addresses to a
spectator whom he wishes to honour by dedicating to him the death of the
next bull. By tradition the spectator in question expresses his thanks by
making a present to the matador.
The object of a bullfight is to test a bull’s mettle against a man’s grace,
skill and courage. The bull is brave, strong and brutish; the matador’s intel-
ligence gives him an unfair advantage over his more powerful antagonist –
but the odds against him are there to make the game still a gamble. Not a
sport. The bullfight is essentially unsporting in that it is ‘sui generis’ an art,
a cruel, deft, exciting form of art, presented solely for show.
In both the Colosseum and the Corrida there is a protective boundary be-
tween the central arena and the audience. The central space is enclosed
by a boundary. This boundary is semi permeable. It is permeable to sight
and sound. The performer can see the audience and the audience and
see the performer. Sound resonates within the arena as sound travel
through out it replicates the form of the architecture of the arena. Every-
thing travels to and from the centre.
When I think of Arena I always think of a circular space that is open to
the sky. When is comes to cycling, marathons and triathlons the space
of performance happens in the great outdoors one of the most beautiful
Arenas in the world. When a city holds an Olympics the city itself becomes
an arena. The Spanish bullfighting festivals also take place in villages. The
Plaza Mayor in Madrid is an example of a public plaza that became a bull-
fighting arena in spring and summer. Court Magistrates issued guidelines
for renting windows and balconies. Residents in the plaza rented their
windows and balconies to spectators for the bullfights. An Arena involves
the whole community. When there is an event taking place in a city the
focus is on the Arena. Businesses in close proximity to the arena thrive of
the crowds that flock to the arena. The arena is the energy source.
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11. All these Arenas are focused inward on a nucleus. The architecture forms
around this nucleus. The architecture is focused on one space the centre.
The plan in the central space is one flat plane. The architecture is built up
around it creating a concave space. Depending on the performance of the
nucleus the plans that surround it shift and change. The performer is the
nucleus it pulls the audience inwards. The audience charges the Arena
with energy. This energy manifests itself in the form of sound energy and
kinetic energy. This energy of the audience is transferred to the performer.
The sound of the crowd roaring and the kinetic movement of their ap-
plause create a chemical energy in the athlete in the form of adrenaline.
This adrenaline charges the performer with energy.
I can relate to my own experience performing as an athlete. The Zone is
a place where athletes go to within the Arena. When an athlete gets in
the zone it is like they are in a vacuum they cannot hear the crowd or see
it. All they see is the task ahead of them. When that task is completed
the vacuum is lifted and the audience roars. The vacuum is created just
before the race starts. The camera is on the athlete. They greet the crowd
but as soon as those eyes are lowered to the track they are focused on
their goal. When you ask an athlete did they hear you cheering they will
most likely answer no. The crowd does not just blur visually when you
run but sound blurs too. All you can hear is the sound of other competi-
tor’s foot strikes. Sometimes on the last lap of longer races you leave the
vacuum for that final lap. As soon as you hear the bell you hear the roar
of the crowd that is urging you on. The performer is charged with energy
from the audience.
The performers and the spectators enter separately it is only when the
performance begins they interact with each other. An interesting relation-
ship you often see in athletics is ‘the clap’. It happens in the jumping
events and sometimes the throwing events. The athlete raises their hands
above their heads and begins to clap at a slow rhythm. The crowd joins
in and as the athlete begins to run the clapping quickens and reaches its
pinnacle when the athletes jumps or throws. This is an exhilarating experi-
ence for the athlete and often helps them jump their personal bests.
Once you join a crowd you join a larger life form. You behave as one when
in a crowd. Elias Canetti discusses how when an individual joins a crowd
their fear of touch diminishes. She describes how when in a crowd you do
not fear those surrounding you. When you are shoulder to shoulder you
become one with those around you. Your voice is one voice. You move
as one. Sometimes there are two voices in a crowd two of the opposing
teams. The two opposing teams also create two colours. It is not only the
teams that oppose each other but two voices and two colours.
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