Amar was born in Jerusalem, to an Israeli mother and a Jewish-Moroccan father with a French passport. As a child, he immigrated to Morocco with his father. In 1968, he began playing the congas. He also practiced the tabla and the zarb in the following years. In 1976 he met South African choreographer Peter Goss, who introduced him to dance. In the subsequent years, he worked with a number of choreographers in contemporary dance.