At the halfway point of the night, Kristy Sellars stole the stage for act six.
The 35-year-old mother of three is a pole dancer from Australia, who was previously a winner of Australia’s Got Talent in 2019. She isn’t just a pole dancer, though — Kristy combines mystical animation to create a full-fledged story throughout her routine. She crafts story ideas and draws them out on storyboards, which she then brings to life with the help of an animator, and her dancing. After her audition went viral with over 77 million views, expectations were high for her quarter-finals performance — and Kristy did not disappoint.
The 35-year-old starts in front of a giant screen showing four large books, with two poles on the stage in front. She then pulls a glowing pencil out of her pocket, interacting with the screen and drawing a door made out of fiery light, followed by an on-screen door, taking her to a single book page.
She begins to dance, drawing her arms across the pages to flip through them as she hangs onto the pole using only her legs. The page reads “Once upon a time…” as Kristy begins to tear through it, revealing the fantasy story-time world she has created. Kristy takes us into a mushroom garden, where she mimics climbing up a mountain of mushrooms by climbing her pole and having the animation scroll down. Kristy “lies down” atop a branch, by wrapping her legs around the pole and extending her body horizontally, until the branch breaks and she hangs upside down.
It’s almost hard to remember that she isn’t actually a part of the animation, as her movements flow so precisely and in motion with the screen. After diving head first down the pole, Kristy takes us further into her fairytale, chasing after her ambient pencil in front of a wall of paintings. A painting of a boat tilts sideways, spilling onto the stage. Kristy begins to interact with the stage floor as well, dancing over it to create waves, and filling the screen behind her with water. She once again hops onto the pole, this time “swimming” under the water by gripping the pole with one hand, and kicking her legs while paddling with the other. The audience gasps turn into applause and cheers, as Kristy continues her journey to fetch her pencil.
Finally, Kristy grabs the escaped pencil and draws herself an escape door, which she travels through to exit the book, the screen returning to its original picture. Kristy erases the door she had drawn into the book, and blows out a candle on the screen, with the stage fading to black.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nT3cMwAuS0
With a full standing ovation from the audience and the judges, it’s safe to say they felt just as amazed as we did watching it at home. After the show ended, we asked Kristy how she was able to prepare for such a spellbinding act.
“I don’t think anything can prepare you for that,” Kristy laughed. “I have the projector- it’s shot into the mirror and then back onto the wall, which makes it closer to the size that I need it. There are a lot of shadows in the room, there are logos on the walls, so I kind of have to just imagine the act as it will be when it gets onto a better stage. I know how it’s gonna look, but it’s just getting that timing really spot on.”
And even with that explanation, we still don’t understand the talent and hard work it must have taken Kristy to perform such a show-stopper, landing her in the top two and moving on to the finals. We can’t WAIT to see what she has in store for us then.
