At the fair, DiVine is both creepy and cool

One of the strangest sites making the rounds at this year's state fair is a 8-foot-tall walking vine named, of course, DiVine. DiVine strolls around the Heritage Circle area near the Flower and Garden Show every afternoon, and she usually stops fairgoers in their tracks.

DiVine is really Kirsten Heinrich, a classical and modern ballet dancer who has toured with the San Diego Ballet. Her dance skills are apparent as soon as she moves on her leafy stilts.

Ann and Jerry Faucette of Brown Summitt thought DiVine was great. "She's really limber and so graceful," Ann said. "And you can see that she's a very pretty girl. Just beautiful."

4-year-old Ryan from Siler City pronounced her "cool" and his 12-year-old sister Nikki said she was "awesome." Their grandmother commented that she may be a "walking vine" for Halloween, but Ryan said he's sticking with "ghost pirate."

Shane Bailey of Angier snapped a few pictures of DiVine and walked away saying, "That's creepy!" He had walked by a post where DiVine was posing, not realizing it was a person. "I didn't know it was gonna move," he said.

Bailey's 10-year-old son Matthew was also taken by surprise. "It's weird," he said. "It's like an animal. I didn't know what it was at first. When you see it on that pole, it looks like a real grapevine!"

The Living Vine was previously part of the Living Garden dance group, which has performed at the White House and at the Grammys. The Living Vines have now branched out on their own and appear all over the world.

DiVine usually starts moving around 1 p.m. each day, beginning her strolls in front of the Flower and Garden Show. I stalked her for three days before finally seeing her in person. The best time to catch her is right by the Flower Show at the top of each hour.

There's a short video below.