Dance | 7/22/2025 2:26:00 PM

DALLAS (July 22, 2025) – History strikes for the Texas Woman's Pioneer Pride Dance team, as the Pioneers continue to blaze new records heading into the 2025-26 season.

Last season, PPDT claimed their first National Dance Alliance (NDA) National Championship, winning Division II Spirit Rally. On July 18-20, the Pioneers continued their trend of history at the 2025 NDA Summer Camp hosted at Southern Methodist University. During the three days of camp, TWU showcased their game day routine, learned a new team dance routine and also strengthened many techniques. On Sunday, the camp culminated with competitions, All-American auditions and awards.

Throughout the camp, teams earn points from various camp activities, placement in competition categories and votes from NDA staff members. Based on point accumulation, teams with the most points receive a gold, silver or bronze bid to nationals.

Last season, they claimed the first program's first Gold Paid Bid. This season, they once again claimed a Gold Paid Bid to the 2026 NDA Collegiate Nationals in Daytona, Fla. – winning it for the second straight season. Then, the Pioneers earned First Place Division II Game Day Routine for the second straight year, First Place Division II Team Dance for the second straight year and Most Spirited across all divisions and teams. They also received the first Spirit Stick of camp.

Nevertheless, the history continued this year. For the first time in PPDT program history, the Pioneers were named the Best All-Around Team, earning the highest point accumulation of any team across all divisions.

"Every year, we attend NDA camp to earn our bid to nationals," Head Coach Marisa Martin said. "The Gold Bid being the highest and hardest to achieve. The camp is full of opportunities to earn different awards based on skill and school spirit. Best All-Around at camp is the highest award you can receive. It's an accumulation of the most points while at camp and is based off staff votes, votes from other teams and performance rankings. We compete against all teams from every division (D1A, D1, D2, D3, JUCO/NAIA) to earn our bids and these awards, which is why a Division II school winning is so incredible!"

During camp, the Pioneers also had an opportunity to compete for NDA All-American honors. Throughout the three days of camps, the NDA staff nominate dancers to audition for All-America honors. The nominees are chosen based on their leadership, work ethic and dance ability shown during the camp. Nominees perform the team dance routine individually and are judged by the NDA staff based on their performances.

From PPDT, the All-American nominees were Sofia Morales, Caden Hensley, Heimy Morales and Kendall Madkins. Madkins was named a 2025 NDA All-American, earning her second straight All-American honor.

TWU set the tone at summer camp for another historical season.

"Proud is an understatement," Coach Martin said. "Coming off a Gold bid and National Championship this past year, the new team was determined to set the standard for this season and keep the energy going. This was definitely the hardest camp my team has experienced. They were challenged mentally and physically and had to learn routines quickly and perform at a high level. Best All-Around is historically the hardest award to receive. It takes a talented, spirited and hard-working school to bring home this title. As their coach, I've always known this was possible, but hearing our name called was quite shocking! I couldn't be prouder of these athletes' resilience at camp and determination to bring home the Gold. It makes me so excited for this upcoming season and ready to take on new challenges to push us to the next level."