The 860-seat theatre has a much larger-than-average stage designed to resemble a village plateia (the village plaza where dancing traditionally takes place during festivities). The Dora Stratou dancers wear original folk costumes, jewellery and other items from a 2,000-strong collection spanning various Greek regions, and are also taught how to put them on (as each region has different rules) in order to ensure historical accuracy. The theatre's role in the preservation of Greek dances also extends to supporting field research programmes in dance ethnography, dance history or sociology, as well as maintaining archives of dance books, articles, field recordings, photographs, videos and films.