BALLARAT mum of three Kristy Sellars has climbed to the top of the pole, winning Australia's Got Talent after a public vote on Sunday night.
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With only nine days to prepare from her semi-final success to the final, pole dancer Sellars and her visual artist Ryan Talbot, worked non-stop to create a dazzling spectacle which wowed the judges and the audience at home.
SEE KRISTY'S GRAND FINAL WINNING PERFORMANCE HERE
Amazingly, Talbot was home in Los Angeles when the final was filmed, with Sellars contacting him digitally throughout the day to make subtle changes to the projections right up to the moment she took to the stage.
"I had the idea to combine projections about three to four years ago and I went online looking for different animators, I found something Ryan had put together in high school, he's only 22 now," she said.
"I contacted him and he said yes he was interested, but it's not something he'd never thought he'd be doing.
"He came to watch the audition and semi, but in the final it was basically us going back-and-forward, back-and-forward, until we got it.
Sellars said she would split the $100,000 prize money 50-50 with her projectionist
"We knew once we were in the semi-final, there was a chance we could go through to the final, so we originally had two performances in the pipeline," she said.
"But it's very hard to focus on the second performance when you're trying to perfect the first one.
"We probably had 35-40 per cent of the Grand Final performance prepared, but then the last nine days was chaos trying to perfect the biggest performance of my life."
While the final was filmed three weeks ago, Sellars had no idea she had won until Sunday night after the public vote had been tallied up.
"It's an incredibly strange experience," she said, "It was so weird, it's funny how it happened, they didn't tell us who they would yell out first and as it turned out, I was the first name they called out so my reaction is quite genuine surprise.
"It's such an emotional roller coaster and they brought my daughter and partner on stage and that set me off. The tears and everything were real."
Sellars, who spent all of Monday conducting media interviews, said she had received numerous offers including a number of international opportunities, and hopes to use the winnings on buying a new projector and working to create even greater performances going forward.
She said she hoped to work with Talbot in the future, but admitted he had also received numerous jobs offers thanks to the success that now "might be too good for a 22-year-old to refuse".
She said she was proud that she had been given an opportunity to showcase her passion on national television, hoping that it will encourage other women - and men - to take up the challenge that pole dancing offers.
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.
"Thanks so much to anyone who did vote for me," she said.
"I felt incredibly well supported locally by the community and it's nice to be able to represent a town like ours and go out there and compete."
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