Kristy Sellars is reaching new heights and shaking off the stigma around her athletic art form.
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The Ballarat-based mum and pole dance aficionado has made it through to the Australia's Got Talent grand final on Sunday, which will be voted on by the public.
Sellers' athletic feats on Australia's Got Talent are bolstered by her artistry as a storyteller, paired with incredible illustrated projections by 22-year-old visual artist Ryan Talbot.
Her first two performances on the show have been viewed a combined 48 million times on Facebook.
There was only nine days between the semi-final and grand final performance. More than 12 hours a day were spent in-studio, either limbering up or training technical elements. That was in between school pick-ups and understanding the show's technical aspects.
Check out Kristy's amazing semi-final perfomance
"I've never trained so hard in my life," she said. "Even this grand final show has a more complex costume than the first two, so even just rehearsing that itself was kind of a mission."
Sellars' exploits as a performer are magnified by the fact she had her son Ollie only six months ago before she started training for the show. On her return to exercise, she started with holding push-ups on her knees, then graduated to full push-ups.
"I don't think I'm naturally flexible or naturally strong," she said. "I just work really hard to do the the things you see on the show."
So much of pole dancing is making difficult moves - requiring supreme upper and core strength - look entirely effortless. But Sellars' admits the mental stamina needed to train and master each routine has been just as taxing.
The pressure of having to make the biggest, best show in the shortest amount of time... was huge. Mentally, even after those 12 hours of training each day, it was so draining in every aspect.
- Kristy Sellars, Australia's Got Talent grand finalist
Sellars is the franchisor of PhysiPole Studios, which now has nine studios in Victoria, five in Queensland and two in the ACT/NSW and one in South Australia.
She said when she started her business, there was plenty of stigma around pole dancing, and shaming of the women who engaged in it as exercise. Sellars says now performing her routines on a national platform "just opens up people's eyes to the possibilities of what can be done" with a vertical steel pole.
"We've got people messaging us directly and saying, 'I just saw this on TV and now I want to do it.'," she said.
Once it's over, she's hoping to spend more time with her kids, Rylie, 7, Mason, 20 months, and Ollie, ten months, and will weigh up international opportunities.
But for now, she's anticipating the reaction to the "few surprises" planned in Sunday's performance.
"I've really pushed it in terms of what I've done before, with costume and with the multiple projections. I really hope people will enjoy it, but I've definitely gone in a different direction to the first two shows."
The Australia's Got Talent finale will air on Channel 7 at 7pm Sunday.