Moresca

For the Croatian sword-dance, see Moreška.

Moresca (Italian), morisca (Spanish), or moresque, mauresque (French), also known in French as the danse des bouffons, is a 15th/16th century pantomime dance in which the executants wore Moorish costumes. One such is the concluding music of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. One of the best examples of the moresca can be seen in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet, which has a scene with moresca characters and lavish, florid portrayal of the dance in the Capulet home.