The final bars of The Kiss were later used as a prelude to Nyman's opera with Victoria Hardie, Vital Statistics, with which it shares a common theme.

The song is based on "Slawkenbergius's Tale" from Volume IV, Chapter 1 of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, which depicts a visitor to Strasbourg from the Promontory of Noses.

Bearing the name of a key line in The Kiss, this piece is the sixth movement of the larger work, Memorial, assembled from music used in Peter Greenaway's Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London and Oxfordshire, 1985.

Nyman describes the piece in the liner notes mainly in terms of an exploration of the beauty of Sarah Leonard's upper register, in which he does not have her use words.

Water Dances forms the score of Peter Greenaway's 1984 film, Making a Splash, a short documentary about synchronized swimming.

Eventually, Nyman expanded the piece into an eight-movement concert work lasting approximately 40 minutes, although the complete version has never been released on a commercial recording.