Ayalah Goren-Kadman teaches, choreographs and researches the folk culture and dance of Israel’s ethnic groups (Arabs and Jews). Since 1988 she has directed the ethnic dance program of the Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem.

Since the establishment of the Ethnic Dance Project, founded by Gurit Kadman in 1971, Goren-Kadman has played a leading role in its activities. From 1978 to 1990 she directed the annual regional and countryside festivals of the performing arts. She is a graduate of Hebrew University in sociology and anthropology, has delivered papers at international conferences in Israel, Hawaii, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C., and guest taught at Julliard, Barnard College, City College of CUNY, Connecticut College, University of California Los Angeles, and Stanford University. Her numerous articles about ethnic and folk dance in Israel have appeared in Hebrew and English in journals in Israel and the U.S. She has co-produced a series of ethnographic films on the traditional dances of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.