If you’re a fan of Prime7’s Australia’s Got Talent, then you’ll know this year’s winner was pole dancing extraordinaire, Kristy Sellars. What you might not know is that Albury holds a special place in Kristy’s heart.
Kristy is the founder and original owner of PhysiPole Studios Albury, which is part of the national PhysiPole franchise.
After opening successful studios in Ballarat and other locations in regional Victoria, Kristy saw the potential in an Albury location. She loved everything about the area and opened the Albury studio in 2015. Dubbing Albury as her ‘baby’, Kristy sold the franchise to Albury/Wodonga local and then studio manager, Zoe Porch in 2017
Albury was the first PhysiPole location outside of Victoria and is now one of 17 locations around Australia.
As a mother of three children, her youngest just six months old, Kristy didn’t go into Australia’s Got Talent thinking she would win. Those who watched Kristy’s performances this season would have picked up on how humble and grateful she was for the experience and the opportunity to share her art with the country.
“To realise that people picked up their phones and voted for me is just a really amazing compliment. It (voting) takes effort and that means that I’ve touched them in some way through the performances,” Kristy told Bordercafe.com.au
“it’s just a vertical piece of steel, if you turned it horizontal we’d be doing gymnastics”
Throughout the eight-week series, Kristy used a combination of pole moves, dance and stunning on-stage visuals to tell powerful stories to advance to the next round. Each performance took a minimum of five weeks to choreograph and produce.
She works with Los-Angelas based visual artist and graphic designer, Ryan Talbot, to create the perfectly timed and cinematic background effects that have become a trademark of her style of pole dance.
While all of her performances told powerful stories of challenge and hope, her grand finale performance was arguably the most moving, telling the story of someone living with through a difficult home life and finding a way to overcome those obstacles.
“I wanted to connect with people on a topic that isn’t necessarily spoken about very often, but I wanted to do it in a way that’s tasteful and still beautiful to watch, she said.
None of Kristy’s performances during the series were the typical pole dance-style show, which is part of what PhysiPole is known for.
“I have always combined a theatrical element to my pole performance. At PhysiPole it’s the same thing. Some people join for fitness, some people join to explore different types of dance.
“These days it’s not really what people think that it (pole dancing) used to be a long time ago. It’s nice to be able to use a platform like AGT to bridge that gap and show how it can be used.
“Because really, it’s just a vertical piece of steel, if you turned it horizontal we’d be doing gymnastics,” Kristy said.
What will she do with the winnings? Kristy plans to split the $100,000 prize with Ryan and use her portion to continue to create her unique brand of pole dance and athleticism, which she hopes will inspire others to try something new.
You can watch Kristy’s moving grand finale performance on the 7plus website.
