Royal New Zealand Ballet

Effortlessly elegant, sublimely beautiful, David Dawson's A Million Kisses to My Skin is a lyrical extension of Bach's piano concerto. The work breathes free-flowing movement into classical ballet. Dawson says his ballet owes its wonderfully evocative title to "the feeling an artist can achieve when everything comes together, a feeling that can be rare". It's what gives dancers goosebumps and makes their spines tingle, he says. "The set - six high, deep purple panels and white parallelogram floor - represents a shrine or altar where the colourful glamour of dance can be seen as a celebration of the individual."

The fluid fabrics of Yumiko Takeshima's costumes underscore the visual drama in shades of red, mustard and purple. "A Million Kisses to My Skin - a dazzling work that succeeds in making Bach's Concerto No 1 in D minor sing... the work employs a bravura vocabulary of movement, that swoops, dips and swirls and is passed on from dancer to dancer as though they are sharing the sheer joy of movement" - The Dominion Post