Flora Sarzotti approached traditional dance at the age of just 12, learning the repertoire of Occitan dances from the Valle Varaita and unknowingly participating in the first phase of the revival—the rediscovery of these dances. She had yet to realize that her life would become a long and diverse journey of research and study into traditional folk dances. She followed her great passion, expanding the boundaries of her research year after year.

She graduated in cultural anthropology at the University of Turin, with a thesis on dance in the Alpine communities of Piedmont. Her encyclopedic thesis was awarded by the Province of Cuneo. Between the ages of 20 and 30, she undertook numerous trips to France to study the traditional dance repertoires of various French regions. It was there that she also discovered Irish music, thanks to an Irish music group performing at the famous Saint-Chartier Festival. It was love at first sight, and from that moment on, she began to study Irish dance intensively—both by inviting Irish music groups and dance teachers to Italy and by traveling directly to Ireland for many years to learn Irish dance repertoires.

In 1993, she founded the John O’Leary association in Turin. The association’s mission was twofold: on one hand, to continue spreading French Occitan dances, and on the other, to introduce Irish music and dance, which were still largely unknown in Italy. The association was named after a famous Irish melodeon player.

Irish music, with its overflowing cascade of notes, leaves no one indifferent, and it’s impossible to keep your feet still! The dance workshops in Vialfrè, supported by the association’s dancers, are a moment of great joy and fun.