The early Moresk was an exotic entertainment presented at the Royal Courts across Europe. The Moresk first appears in English historical records in the mid 15th century. First we have descriptions of Moresk decorations on tableware, then inventories and accounts of monies spent on Moresk costumes, and eventually descriptions of Moresk performances. By 1500 the important landowners in the English provinces were keen to imitate the entertainment they had seen at the royal court. They trained their own teams of Moresk dancers. Rose Moresk is part of a project (The Early Morris Project - TEMP) to explore the origins of Morris Dancing in England. The dances performed by Rose Moresk are drawn from a collection of dances, known as the Gresley Manuscript, originating from a large house in Derbyshire. Our current repetoire consists of five dances: Prenes a Gard; Pernes in Gre; Talbot; Temperans; Ly Bens Dystonys. Music for these is a pipe and tabor. All of the dances have but one purpose - for the dancers to woo the fine lady whose presence graces our performance. Our costumes designs are based on contemporary carvings at Abington and Lancaster, together with information from the above mentioned inventories. The next phase of Rose Moresk will be to expand the repetoire, and present the other elements that put the Moresk in context, e.g. Masque dances and Pas des Armes. In the future we would go back further in time to explore the origins of the Moresk on the continent where it was widespread entertainment in the c ourts of Europe throughout the early C15th. We would also like to look at the transition from the Moresk to the Morris dance that we know today. Please contact us if you are interested in this project. Contact is via our web site.