Table Manners is a performance unit founded in 2023 by Danshiro and Tomomi Tanabe. Their debut piece, Table Manner, was presented through the Tokyo Arts Council’s grant program Tokyo Crisis Plan. Since then, they have continued to present new works annually at the Tatsumi Hijikata and Natsuyuki Nakanishi Memorial Warehouse.
Their work engages with the everyday and institutional frameworks of gender and family. On stage, they bring forth embodied experiences such as the streaming body, the eating body, and the birthing body—seeking to establish new forms of relationships with the audience.
At their monthly roundtable sessions, they create a space for shared dialogue and reflection, using books on gender and care as starting points. By circulating between performance and discussion, Table Manners aims to open up social questions around family, gender, and the body through practice.
Danshiro
Designer
Graduated from the Master’s program at Nottingham Trent University, with a research focus on garments that transform in relation to gender. Created and performed Un-weaving Shinto (Jun O), and worked as a dramaturge for Esperanza / 希望 by Kenta Shibasaki. Contributed costume and set design for Birdcage by Tomomi Tanabe, presented at Kamaitachi-no-Sato Art Festival and Atelier Dai-Q Geijutsu. Performed solo in Slug Dance at Fukuoka Dance Exchange.
Tomomi Tanabe
Butoh dancer / Midwife
Born in Tokyo, she began dancing while at university and, in 1985, joined the training sessions of Tatsumi Hijikata. She studied under Kunisuke Kamiro and Masahide Omori, and has performed in Dance Hakushu and works by Masaki Iwana. Since 1997, she has developed a solo series titled Goldfish Bowl. In 2012, she began performing The Sick Dancer—based on Tatsumi Hijikata’s text Ailing Dancer—in collaboration with Takao Kawaguchi. From 2016 to 2021, she participated in the project Perception of the Body. In May 2022, she presented a trial performance of Bird Cage at Saruhashi Warehouse, and in September performed at the Kamaitachi-no-Sato Art Festival. In May 2023, she presented the solo performance Bird Cage at Atelier Dai-Q Geijutsu. She is also active as a midwife.