{"id":19,"date":"2026-03-16T00:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gileadance.ca\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2026-04-13T04:56:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:56:47","slug":"about-gilea","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gileadance.ca\/index.php\/about-us\/about-gilea\/","title":{"rendered":"Origin of Our Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Gilea
Photo by Igor Karimov<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gilea comes from the ancient Greek word \u201cHylea,\u201d which means \u201cthe land of forests.\u201d
It was the name used by ancient Greeks for the rich, wild territory along the lower Dnipro River \u2014 in what is now southern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a sacred land of nature, freedom, and strength \u2014 home to the Scythians, a people of warriors, artists, and dreamers who lived in harmony with the earth and the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Symbolically, Gilea represents a return to origins, to the roots and natural rhythm of life.
It is the inner forest of the soul \u2014 a place of connection, intuition, and authentic expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when we say Gilea Dance, we mean a dance that rises from the earth, flows through the body, and reaches toward the spirit \u2014a dance that remembers where it came from.<\/p>\n\n\n

Lyudmila Teslia and Natalia Teslia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gilea comes from the ancient Greek word \u201cHylea,\u201d which means \u201cthe land of forests.\u201dIt was the name used by ancient Greeks for the rich, wild territory along the lower Dnipro River \u2014 in what is now southern Ukraine. It was a sacred land of nature, freedom, and strength \u2014 home to the Scythians, a people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":140,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nOrigin of Our Name - Gilea Dance Academy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gileadance.ca\/index.php\/about-us\/about-gilea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Origin of Our Name - Gilea Dance Academy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gilea comes from the ancient Greek word \u201cHylea,\u201d which means \u201cthe land of forests.\u201dIt was the name used by ancient Greeks for the rich, wild territory along the lower Dnipro River \u2014 in what is now southern Ukraine. 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