Knips Suite was composed for Australian choreographer Ian Spink for the "Basic Space" dance group in Edinburgh, and was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1979. It is a suite of dance movements all involving some form of parody or pun, either literary, musical, or both. As a concert work, any number of movements may be played in any order, for any reason.

The movements in the complete original suite are as follows :

(i) Egg Knips (an overture)
(ii) Valse Perverse (sans knips)
(iii) Knips in Brixton (l'homme en colère : "knips on rye, hold the bread")
(iv) Deco Knips (a tango)
(v) Saturday Night Knips (self explanatory)
(vi) Knips del Fuego (a finale)

Although the dance itself featured The Great White Hunter (inexplicably wearing a pith helmet) and another character called Juanita Banana, little of this may be found in the music.