Since Voitko's Flying Linking Rings has been available for a while now,
What are some of your positive and negative experiences with them for those who have tried them out?

I remember Puck asking about them a few years ago. He does recommend them.

Having seen him live, it is a great routine for a formal stage setting.

I use the flying rings since 2 years and its one of those routines I would not miss.
Not only its a wonderfull piece of magic for stage, its also very enjoyable during the rehearsal. Not selfworking of course.But it goes so smooth, you really can dance with the rings!
The set up is fast and easy. You have to take care of the lightning, but there are good advices on Viktor Voitkos DVD.
I have both ring sets: The basic ones and the delux set. The basic ones are not that shiny because they are painted in a silver colour and will change to gray after a couple of houres using it. But the functions and the material are the same and I use the basic ones for rehearsal.
Best
André

I have heard the color on the ring comes off easily, wonder what causes the color change from silver to gray so quickly?

The colour of the basic rings is brushed or painted. So it changes to gray after a couple of houres. I think its the sweating of the hands that causes the colour change.
I
But I have no problems with the deluxe ring set, because they are chrom plated. If you want the rings shiny with nice reflections in the spotlights you better buy the deluxe set.
Someone mentioned that the rings are not completely round. Yes, some of my rings are not in a perfect circle. But its no issue to me because it is only minimal and I can spin them without any problems. Also the spectators will not see that.
As I said: I am very happy with the flying rings.

What is the minimal distance the audience has to be to avoid any visibilty of the thread?

That depend on the lightning and backdrop. I need to have about 15 feet distance to the first row with my lightning.

I think that, like most people who invent a great principle, he is over-using the beautiful aspect of it.
When the ring floats down and up in full view, everybody suspects that there is a thread and tends to explain the linking/unlinking with the existence of that thread. Now had he not offered it, some "smart" young guy would have come with it as a "discovery" as a "variant" or worse as an "improvement".

Now I deeply love the lateral moves that his principle allows: it is very magical, doesn't scream thread, and beautifully blends into a classic 2, 3 or 4 rings routine.

I'm very impressed by the idea and some of its renditions. Really worth spending the money and putting our head at work rather than lavishly copying his routine.

If you go back to some of Al Baker's material he had some great uses of thread with Linking Rings. Even your humble correspondent worked out a very simple way with just a single trailing thresd on one ring. And a way to have two seemingly linked rings UNLINK visibly off a table with one ring flying off and to the floor.

Maybe people will think about a thread is used.....but only to be proved that its not possible! Spinning the rings, let them fly around your body, pass them trough each other....denies the use of thread.
People asked me exactly about that aspect: " How do they fly? There can not be a thread, are they filled with helium?
I think its not only the lighting that is important it is the choreographie, the routining, that must create the illusion. Same as in invisible thread work or the dancing cane for example.

Ken Brooke used to preach "Don't get greedy with a principle."

Well I got greedy with magic

Thanks all for your comments

Does anybody know how much do they weight?

One Ring weights about 80 gramms

I would say, only buy it if you can give it the time it deserves to do it well. I have seen someone in the UK really botch this up and it is so easy to to make this look so very bad. I played around with it for a while on the cruise ships but I didn't like the fact that no matter how much we played around with the lighting, unless you made the stage really dark, there would always be a place somewhere in the theatre where the method would be exposed only very slightly.

I however use his floating Rose routine which is fab. Unfortunatly the rose I bought from him, which was expensive, broke in my first practice it is not very durable, unless he has changed it. I made my own now which is much more durable and use it every show.

I have just bought Voitko's Flying Linking Rings DVD, I do have a set of very good light 13" diameter linking ring, could I just buy the light one from voitko. and practice with 2 rings. who sell a strong i,,, t

Wally- for strong IT I recommend Fearson's Vectra. Well worth it.

I quite agree with Etienne here on both the over-use of the beauty of this principle, and with the absolute marvelous beauty provided by the lateral moves as afforded by this principle. On the occasions that I have performed this version of the rings, I eliminate most of the IT work and use one or two of the sequences, and which of them gets used varies from time to time.

Look back to Galina and her 3 ring version in which one floats in the air for a moment. She only uses that sequence once. Of course that is a very physically demanding performance (not very many can do what she does...!), it is one of the most unique linking ring routines out there, and it is very pretty to watch.

Anyway, back to the Voitko routine: It is well worth the money, but it will take plenty of time and practice to get this down to the point where it goes smoothly, and it does require staging, so it may not be for every venue. In those tough-to-get-it-just-right venues, there are other theatrical components that can be used to help, and if you ever have to darken a stage, a light spot shining on the Deluxe set will help bring them out of the darkness quite nicely.

I hope this information proves useful.