I believe that the beginning stages of my dancing career are very similar to Fitts and Posner's 3 stage model of motor learning. The first stage is the cognitive stage in which movements are often inconsistent and inefficient and mostly consist of motor learning through cognitive and verbal processes. This first stage is exactly like how in the beginning I was just letting the music take me and my movements were very inconsistent and inefficient. I was able to process and learn the moves that attracted more attention from my audiences based on their visual appearances of being interested in the dances and their verbal emotions of cheering me on, and therefore focused on performing these moves more fluidly. The second stage is the associative stage, where movements are more fluid and efficient since some of the movements are controlled consciously and some automatically. This second stage is like when I began watching and studying the Sharkboy and Lavagirl dance scenes. My practice sessions of dancing to this song linked my performance and results, which allowed my movements to begin becoming more fluid and reliable, with less cognitive activity being required of me to come up with movements on the spot like how I was previously doing with letting the music take me. The third stage is the autonomous stage, where movements are now accurate, consistent, and efficient since movements are largely controlled automatically. This last stage is exactly what happened to me by the 12th movie where I had completely memorized the dance on my own. Little to no cognitive activity was required anymore, because I had already memorized the exact motions that Sharkboy would perform, and was able to do these movements smoothly and efficiently.

I think playing these sports quickly boosted my dancing capabilities, as I was able to transfer the moves I learned to my dances. Transfer of learning is defined as the gain or loss in proficiency of one skill as a result of practicing another skill. I was in no shape or form a good gymnastics or diving athlete, and I ended up quitting them both after a year. But during the year that I did it, I practiced a lot on my techniques so that I could incorporate them into my dances. I often made many mistakes at gymnastics and diving practices, especially since I was only 8 years old at the time. However, I was able to retain all that knowledge I had gained from both sports and incorporated them into my dance routines. This shows positive transfer, as my experience in gymnastics and diving caused a beneficial effect on the performance of my dance moves. Once I had combined my Sharkboy dance moves I had memorized with my new handstand, cartwheel, and backflip skills, I knew I could wow any crowd of family members and friends at any given social event. 

Introducing myself to many different music genres allowed me to become a better dancer through variable practice. Practice variability is defined as the variety of movements and context characteristics a person experiences while practicing a skill. The biggest effect of practice variety is that, while you do end up having a higher level of performance mistakes during your practice sessions, you are still able to retain more information and advance your target skill when you practice it with variability. While my dance routines in the beginning were filled with mistakes, off beat dances, and shyness to perform when I didn’t know the songs being played, I quickly became more confident with my movements since I began dancing to any and every song. Every song I listened to caused a new dance routine to be created, and with a plethora of dance moves now learned and songs to listen to, I began having more trust and faith in my movements. I could now dance one way for hip hop songs, while also dancing a different way when sertanejo came on, or when jazz came on, or electronic music, etc. Anything and everything I listened to made me feel like I could come up with a dance routine for, which definitely came in handy for the family events that my dad would DJ for.