Amina Goodyear began her performance career in the mid-60’s at the Baghdad Cabaret belly dancing nightly in San Francisco’s North Beach district during that city’s golden era of Middle Eastern dance and she opened her own school in the early 1970’s. She hasn’t stopped dancing, teaching and learning ever since. She founded her dance company, The Aswan Dancers, in 1975, and celebrates over 40 years of continuous performance and entertainment with them. Amina began her studies in Arabic percussion here and in Egypt in the early 1970’s and continues to study while specializing in learning about, collecting and categorizing the various genres of Egyptian percussion and music.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area Amina has founded many musical groups, both informal & professional performance groups. She founded the Cairo Cats, now a percussion ensemble led by her daughter Susu Pampanin. She also co-founded The Arabian Knights Band, Karnak, Layalli al Sharq, the Four T’s and Caravan Band, and was a founding member of SF Sahra Band, Aswat, AWE and Pasha Band. Today she plays with Dulabina playing fun danceable songs; Beit el Tarab dedicated to studying rare and classic Arabic music; SF Sahra Band playing Tarab and acoustic music and song, Aswat Arab Music Ensemble’s (20 years); AWE, Aswat Women’s Ensemble (11 years) and the Georges Lammam Ensemble (15 years).

Amina has also co-produced 2 music albums with her daughter Susu, a dance DVD featuring Nadia Hamdi, the last “awalem; a docudance collection of the first twenty years with the Aswan Dancers; was a featured dancer in a film “Classic Stars of BellyDance” and is now producing and co-writing music/lyrics with musicians and Mahraganat artists in Egypt. Some day they may be available to the public.

During the Pandemic she began recording some dances in her studio to share with friends and students. Below are some favorites. They vary from classic to shaabi. Hope you enjoy them.