How can a chronotype of old Tbilisi — known as ‘the Kinto’ — and his dance influence today’s queer movement in Georgia? Does the ‘Kinto’ dance have the ability to become a tool of mediation between traditionalists and queer people?

This research by Ana Subeliani proposes a new reading of the Kinto as an authentic queer character of old Tbilisi. Revealing  its exoticism and eroticism in relation to homosexuality allows for a new historical narrative away from the mainstream georgian belief that homosexuality is not georgian but an ‘imported behaviour from western society’. esearch methodology includes interviews with historians and artists who have gathered some information about the Kinto character,or have been influenced by this. She has also collected and made semiotic analysis of Kinto symbols, including urban folklore and art pieces.   

The next step of the project is to reinvent the Kinto character and his dance with its original, authentic features and modern attributes into a video-performance which is to beused as a tool to allow for conversations between the Georgian queer movement and Georgian traditional culture which excludes queerness. 

Ana Subeliani is also a well-known Georgian queer activist and she has in the past receiveddeath threats and got injured by far-right groups for her use of  dance as a tool of activism. Considering this, this project is expected to go viral and to cause dialogue between different social groups, as it happened in the past.