Berkleyesque

comparative more Berkleyesque · superlative most Berkleyesque

1. In the choreographic style of Busby Berkley, involving elaborate geometric patterns creating a kaleidoscopic effect, usually by large numbers of showgirls.

   The apotheosis of this musical tendency as it was made "cinematic" is the (Busby) "Berkleyesque", the spatial dimensions of which I shall examine below.

   2015, Tom Brown, Spectacle in Classical Cinemas: Musicality and Historicity in the 1930s, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Best moments are reserved from Bernard Cribbins's endearing gangster finding a dog down his trousers and miffed by his position as Public Enemy No 13, and the rousing Berkleyesque close to the first half in which the title number gets a rousing, joyful rendition on Tony Walton's all-purpose nautical set.

   1989, London Theatre Record - Volume 9, Issues 14-26, page 868

   At first glance, the Berkleyesque choreography in Revue um Mitternacht is somewhat reminiscent of Ufa revues of the 1920s and 1930s, with their emphasis on synchronised female body geometrics, their dynamic regimented motion and the audacity of a spatial imagination that dissolves the stage into a world of kaleidoscopic planes and patterns.

   2006, Ian Conrich, Film's Musical Moments, →ISBN, page 187