“My dad has a barn,” chirped a wide-eyed, hyperactive Mickey Rooney. “And my mom can sew the costumes,” the pigtailed, pinafore-bedecked Judy Garland replied. And off they went, hand in hand, singing and dancing their way across the barnyard.

Well, it was something like that and they didn’t even live on the Vineyard where the performing arts culture has grown and grown. No more drafty barns here and mom can now sit in the audience and not have to sew costumes.

The dance card wasn’t always as full as it is for this 2010 season. There were the lean years when Kathy Joyce and Bill Costanza were the only game in town for year-round dance classes and Duncan Ross’s community high school musicals brought welcome relief to the otherwise long, gray winters.

But now the Vineyard boasts some of the most innovative professional and amateur performances to be seen on the entire East Coast. Opera, ballet, theatre arts, performance arts, modern dance and all the subheadings that fall under each of those better known forms will live in the spotlight over the next four-plus months.

The three major venues are: Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs, where the annual Built on Stilts festival takes place in August; the Patricia N. Nanon Theatre on Middle Road in Chilmark, home to the Yard performances; and the spacious studios at 215 Upper Main street in Edgartown for the Vineyard Arts Project.

Built On Stilts

Built on Stilts offers a series of performances at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs from August 12 to 15 and again from August 21 to 23; all performances are free to the public.

These shows include hip-hop, ballet, jazz, ballroom, modern, belly dance, theatre, improv, comedy, capoeira, live music drumming, the spoken word and more.

The festival began 14 years ago as a one-night stand with a few New-York-based dancers and has blossomed to encompass the entire Island community of all ages and philosophies, both professional and amateur in stature.

The brainchild of Abby Bender, the current director-producer, and Anna Luckey, the concept was a fairly straightforward one: they were dancers who wanted to dance. And each year it grew to be more inclusive, not only of who performed but the types of performances presented under their umbrella.

As Ms. Bender says, “This will be an incomparably egalitarian and inspiring season of programming. The festival hosts 40 to 60 different performances by members of the Vineyard community and professional performing artists from the Island, New York, Connecticut and beyond.”

Sponsors for the events are the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust and Martha’s Vineyard Cultural Council.

The bottom line: if you want to perform on the Island this is the place to go. Built on Stilts will accept applications until July 1 for the August shows. For further guidelines and registration to become a part of this festival go to builtonstilts.org.

The Yard

The Yard began as the dream of the late Patricia Nanon and over the years became a first-of-its-kind summer dance colony. Ms. Nanon wanted to give dancers the same opportunities to create that their counterparts at writer’s colonies, such as Yaddo, had.

Dancers would come to her wooded property in Chilmark where they were provided with Spartan communal housing. Once there they had the chance to choreograph and dance within a beautiful setting where birdsong replaced city sirens and sand tickled their hardened, urban asphalt souls and soles.

And the Yard has certainly taken root over the past 37 years in the creative soil of the Vineyard. Under the artistic directorship of Wendy Taucher it has branched out, has gone from purely a dance colony to one that now encompasses opera, the spoken word, photography and a myriad of more esoteric performance art.

The Yard is the full package: residencies for aspiring choreographers, workshops, children’s programs in conjunction with Chilmark Community Center, Yard Arts, ecological dance venues, programs in the Islandwide school system — it’s all encompassing and covers a very broad spectrum.

This year the Yard Institute will offer workshops for those who want to know more about the performing arts but are not dancers and performers themselves.

Most dancers turn to choreography with little knowledge of this other, but similar discipline. This year Balletboyz of London, England, will be the recipients of a workshop to broaden the scope and understanding of the process involved in seeing the whole instead of being only one part as happens with being a dancer in a larger piece.

The kickoff for the Yard season begins on July 2 with a special performance dedicated to Claudia Miller, founder of Artists Pointing the Way and a generous supporter of the arts on the Vineyard and beyond.

That eclectic evening’s performance will include a preview of Amy Brenneman’s Mandala, Martha Graham’s Lamentations and Robert Battle’s tour-de-force Ella.

From July 16 to 18 Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer slam images and reality together, entwining projection and acrobatic dance. That same weekend eminent dance photographer Lois Greenfield demonstrates the art of capturing dance movement with a slide show and lecture.

At the end of July and beginning of August, the zany Balletboyz from London perform Talent featuring their trademark films, behind the scenes footage and highlighting a mixed program of brand new works.

Other performances on the roster include: An Epic Journey from Church to Chorus Line; Mozart’s Impresario; and Urban Bush Women: Walking With Pearl, but this is just a small sampling of the wonderful world of the Yard. Throughout the summer there will be workshops, classes, unique season tickets with suppers and desserts (sponsored by the local NPR station WCAI).

There will also be a combined fundraiser at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport with Stina Sayre’s designs to benefit both the Yard and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

The active Ms. Taucher sent the following message from her iPhone while on the road back to the Island: “I’m delighted with the variety and quality of this season’s artists. I’m lucky because I get to be a spectator all summer and also to discuss our events with the Yard’s sophisticated audience.”

To nail down specific dates, performers, or to order season tickets go to the Yard Web site, dancetheyard.org.

Vineyard Arts Project

The Vineyard Arts Project platform has been expanded this year to include a festival of new works by emerging playwrights in conjunction with Brooke Hardman and Brian Ditchfield’s ArtFarm. The three plays will be: Disgraced, written by Ayad Akhtar and directed by Will Frears; Witness Uganda, created and conceived by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews; and Big Babies by Matthew Wilkas, directed by Martha Banta. These performances will be held at 215 Upper Main street in Edgartown July 1-3. (Theatre preview appears on Page One-A in today’s edition.)

From August 1 to 20, the Musical Theatre Lab will take place, immersing a select 30 young dancers in the art and craft of dancing, acting, singing, tap, musical theatre, monologue study, vocal techniques, improvisation and audition preparation. Students range in age from 16 to 21 and hail from across the United States.

There will also be panel discussions on auditioning, touring, getting started, college application, injury prevention and professionalism in the realm of the arts.

This year’s faculty and guest teachers include Robert Bianca, Marianne Challis, MaryAnn Lamb, Mary MacLeod, Michael Lavine, Elizabeth Parkinson, Jeffrey Saver, Leland Williams, former Islander Kaf Warman, Scott Wise and Karen Young of Jay Binder Casting.

Ashley Melone, executive producer of Vineyard Arts Project, had this to say about the growth and development of this unusual venture: “Dance has always been a cornerstone of our programming at Vineyard Arts Project. This summer, I am thrilled to have three talented emerging choreographers, Melissa Barak, Jessica Lang, and Pontus Lidberg, working with us. Each will be creating a new piece with the contemporary ballet company, Morphoses, during their residency in late August and September.

“Supporting the development of new work by young choreographers, especially two females, is very important to me and critical to the dance field as a whole.”

A partnership residency between Vineyard Arts Project and Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim in New York city, will take place from August 29 through September 30. The ballet company Morphoses will be in residence for their second stay at Vineyard Arts Project.

Choreographers Jessica Lang and Pontus Lidberg will each create a new work set to the same pieces of music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Emerging choreographer Melissa Barak will also create a new work. Public performances will be Sept. 4 and again on Sept. 25.

The new works created on the Island will premiere on October 3 and 4 in New York city at Works & Process. For further information on Morphoses’ performance schedule, contact morphoses.org; information on Vineyard Arts Projects may be found at vineyardartsproject.org.

Oh, if only Judy and Mickey could see us now. Good show, Martha’s Vineyard — top notch.