Sunanda Biswas
Ragtime to Grime Characters: Narrator (Sprit of Jazz) / Selfie / Blackout
My name is Sunanda Biswas. I am one of UK’s longest active B-girl’s and founder of ‘FLOWZAIC’ crew in 2005 – UK’s All-Female Breaking crew.
My aka – ‘BGIRL SunSun’ has performed, battled, judged and hosted at some of the biggest Hip Hop, Lindy-Hop / Jazz and B-boy events. I was co-choreographer for the NHS segment of the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony and now the Associate Director of ‘GROUNDED MOVEMENT’ which myself and long term colleague & lindy-hop partner – Temujin Gill created after working with so many talented dancers during the Olympics. I am also the founder of B-boy Crew ‘GROUNDED UK ‘ which is an intergenerational crew with dancers aged from 7 all the way up to 49 years old.
In the current piece of Ragtime to Grime, my character crosses over from being a narrator as I am mainly rapping and doing spoken word, to being an alto ego of the characters ‘Selfie’ and ‘Blackout’. As the narrator, my character is the ’Spirit of Jazz’ where I do a ‘happy ragtime‘ rap and spoken word section, which Temujin and TY wrote together.
Spirit of Jazz
Spirit of Jazz for me represents a kind of Ancestor and ‘wise man’ who talks about the truth & facts of past and present, sharing her knowledge with the people listening to hopefully get the audience/crowd to rethink how they perceive history.
The spirit would watch over you and let you know like an elder that maybe you need to step outside of yourself and take a look at how you think and behave, without preaching but instead gently pointing out the story of your roots and how your history can help you to understand more about your roots and possibly how you might be able to change yourself for the better and be more positive even though you have faced many negative encounters.
Spirit of Jazz has been there and maybe lived through many of the hard and difficult times over the years but has also experienced the happy, rich and colourful times, been through the social and cultural context of life.
Spirit of Jazz needs to exist to remember and remind when people tend to forget and will keep you focused & grounded when you are feeling uncertain and unstable and will try to keep you calm when you might feel angry.
To be Continued…


