When the Dance Theatre of Harlem was created in 1969, its mission was straightforward: change the world through dance. Now, after an eight-year hiatus, the mission is evolving from its Civil Rights-era roots to embrace what ballet can mean today. And the evolution of this new company is beginning right here on the Vineyard. The three week-old new company has been in residence for the past two weeks at the Vineyard Arts Project and will perform this weekend.

You’ve almost certainly seen the shingled building, sitting obvious yet unobtrusive between the dentist and the hair salon on Upper Main street in Edgartown. Perhaps you have heard the skinny: that it’s a dance studio built by a fabulously wealthy man so his daughter, an aspiring ballerina, would have a place to take private lessons for two weeks every summer. According to this tale, the hotel-sized building sits empty the other 50 weeks of the year, and the daughter gave up dancing to study political science anyway.

B allerinas dance with their feet, balancing on pointe shoes with their limbs elongated to expose the intricate workings of muscles, or leaping across stage, leaving only a slight noise on the floor. But this week at the Vineyard Arts Project, they were dancing with their hands. Wrists became entangled, thumbs circled other digits, and knuckles discovered unexplored crevices.

Artists communicate in different forms. But whether the message is through visual or performing art, it always comes back to the essence of the human experience.

Two groups have been in residence for the past two weeks at the Vineyard Arts Project, working to highlight both the dark and exhilarating sides of the human experience. This weekend they go public with their work.