Bora Özkök was an instrumentalist and specialist in Turkish folk dance not only in his birth country of Turkey, but also in North America. In his youth he must have been quite a formidable athlete, competing at sports and coming out for the Olympic swim team of Turkey in the Rome Olympics of 1960. Bora was just fifteen years old then.
In 1967 he was introduced to folkloric dancing at Berkely in the US. He learned Turkish dance on a visit to the country in 1970. His involvement in the world of folkloric dancing was considerable, leading institutions around the world to promote it. There are also eighteen records from him on Discogs, partly on his own label. He died in 2022, 77 years old.