So your son or daughter loves to sing and dance? This is the fun part of your kid’s performing life, before the off-off-Broadway auditions and the cold-water apartments and the jobs waitressing across from Lincoln Square. On the contrary, this is the Minnesingers part of the resume, when your future star gets to strut his or her stuff in the best possible way, in the state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, under the able direction of maestro Jan Wightman, and with an audience packed with a giant claque of friends and family.

Last weekend on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, 27 Minnesingers showcased their new material in the time-honored spring show. Many more performances will unfold yet in upcoming weeks. Most notably, the group will preside at the opening of the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority terminal, and at the May 29 unveiling of the YMCA located, conveniently enough, across from the high school.

Normally a trip abroad is part of the Minnesinger package. This past April, however, the planned performance in Prague got no farther than Logan Airport, preparatory to takeoff: the ash in the air from Iceland’s notorious volcano grounded the singers, along with so many other thousands of disappointed travelers.

But nothing remains of the performers’ dismay: The past weekend’s offering was pure pleasure. As tradition dictates, Part I of the program was dedicated to choral pieces. The lights came up on empty bleachers that were quickly filled by 17 girls in long black dresses with white bodices, and 10 boys in full-out, black-tie tuxedos. Classy. A band of mostly adult professionals was also bathed in spotlights: Steve Tully on sax, Mike Tinus on bass, Rayne Bick and Shauna Nute on trumpet, Sal Esposito on percussion and Melanie Chaunce on piano.

Musical director and conductor, Ms. Wightman chose an interesting mix of gospel hymns and sacred music with a surprising jazzy overlay. The first selection — and the longest, counting down at six movements — began with a medieval inflected Lord Have Mercy that quickly morphed into unusual riffs of modern dissonance.

Part of the joy of listening to the Minnesingers’ choral pieces is the dichotomy between grown-up musical choices and kids’ voices still in process. The girls’ voices more nearly fit the sounds of grown-up sopranos and contraltos, but the boys’ are in a lovely middle ground that, while fully resonant with bass tones, still retain a certain youthful purity.

To make sure the audience wasn’t overtaxed with religious content, Part I ended with a rousing edition of What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?, a feel-good piece if there ever was one, and a special favorite in this part of the country.

Part II was dedicated to Motown and Michael Jackson. Lianna Loughman had been brought in to choreograph the numbers, starting with a full panoply of girls in short white shifts, and boys in black pants, black silk shirts, white ties, and the moves of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, all at the disposal of The Four Tops’ Sugar Pie Honey Bunch.

Some of the showstoppers included the entire girl chorus swathed in pale lavender glitter gowns singing The Supremes’ Stop! (In the Name of Love); Bryan MacKenty sang and performed air guitar for the Commodores’ Easy (Easy Like Sunday Morning); our own homegrown diva, Katie Mayhew, clad in a glam ankle-length blue gown, belted out Feeling Good from The Roar of the Greasepaint, accompanied by Sidra Dumont on piano; the 10 boys danced, snapped their fingers and sang The Temptations’ My Girl against an orange background; in a Michael Jackson medley of Do Re Me and I’ll Be There, Justin Oslyn wowed on the guitar; and Ashleen Cafarelli in Respect inhabited Tina Turner’s voice and body like a second skin.

The grand finale was Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the great zombie expo, and here choreographer Ms. Loughman gets high kudos for reproducing the high jinks of the video, and giving the Minnesingers an opportunity to let it rip. Rykerr Maynard and Bryan MacKenty (in a hilarious monster voice) shared the vocals, and Mr. Maynard in particular enjoyed the chance to channel all the late star’s moves, from the head twists to the shrugs to the moonwalk footwork.

The 2010 Minnesingers are, in alphabetical order, Marta Azzollini, Ashleen Cafarelli, Chelsea Counsell, Sidra Dumont, Abbey Entner, Austin Gampfer, Ashley Gwynn, Haley Hewson, Nick Jerome, Jenna Lambert, Alyssa Laslovich, Emily Lowe, Mitch Lowe, Bryan MacKenty, Hannah Marlin, Katie Mayhew, Rykerr Maynard, Grant McCarthy, Willy Nevin, Meghan Pettit, Daniel Reid, Toby Riseborough, Alex Roan, Amanda Rose, Rebecca Tenorio, Justine Tucker and Anna Yukevich.

You all rocked.

Also, special thanks to Jenny Marlin, mother of Minnesinger Hannah Marlin, another enthusiastic mom, Debbie Grant, and Abigail Southard in the music department at the high school, for helping the Gazette put together this report. In an honorable effort to go green for this performance, the Minnesingers chose to forego a program so as not to waste paper (names and titles were flashed briefly on a screen). It was a noble experiment, but thanks to the above-mentioned helpers, we were able to credit everyone.