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The Clive Barnes Foundation has revealed the 2024 Honored Artists for The Clive Barnes Award in Dance and Theatre. David Gabriel (New York City Ballet), Isaiah K. Harvey (EVIDENCE), and Kanon Sugino (Doug Varone and Dancers) have been named Honored Artists in Dance, and Ava Lalezarzadeh (English), Tom Francis (Sunset Boulevard), and Helen J Shen (Maybe Happy Ending) are the Honored Artists in Theatre. The 15th Annual Clive Barnes Award ceremony will be held Monday, June 9, at 5:30pm at the National Arts Club in New York City.
Honored Artists have been nominated by the Foundation’s 11-member Selection Committee comprised of arts journalists and accomplished professionals in each field. Nominees were selected based on live performances given in New York City between January and December of 2024.
The 15th Anniversary Clive Barnes Award ceremony will include performances and appearances by current and past honorees. A cocktail reception will immediately follow the ceremony.
“This year’s Honored Artists of the Clive Barnes Award for Dance and Theatre represent some of the brightest young talent in their disciplines,” said Lloyd Mayor, Director of the Clive Barnes Foundation and 2014 winner of the Clive Barnes Award for Dance. “Now in our 15th year, my colleagues and I are thrilled to carry on the work of Valerie and Clive and their admirable dedication to supporting young artists.”
David Gabriel
was born in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he began his dance training at the age of eight at Glenwood Dance Academy, under DeAnna Anderson, which became Aspen Santa Fe Ballet School, under Melanie Doskocil. At 15, he continued his training at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet with Marcia Dale Weary and Darla Hoover. He attended the 2019 summer program at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, and enrolled full-time at SAB for the winter term that year. As a student at SAB, Gabriel received the Rudolph Nureyev scholarship. Gabriel became an apprentice with NYCB in August 2021 and joined the corps de ballet in May 2022. Gabriel was promoted to the rank of soloist with New York City Ballet in June 2024.
Isaiah K. Harvey
is an African American artist born and raised in Queens, New York. Harvey began his early dance training at Innervisions Theater Arts Center and earned a BFA in Dance from Montclair State University. He also trained at the Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and at The Ailey School as the recipient of the Bob Fosse Gwen Verdon Scholarship. He has performed with singer/actress Andra Day, in Rashaad Newsome’s Bessie winning production Assembly, Earl Mosley Diversity of Dance, Black Iris Project: Vibrant Voices, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, and as back up dancer for RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Olivia Lux. Harvey has performed works by Alvin Ailey, Ulysses Dove, Camille A. Brown, Rennie Harris, Gary Abbott, Matthew Rushing, and Norbert De La Cruz. Harvey shares his knowledge of dance a as modern dance instructor and has taught at Williams College and Manhattan Youth Ballet. He is currently on staff at the Youth Arts Academy and the Innervisions Theater Arts Center. Harvey is a dancer with EVIDENCE.
Kanon Sugino
is a Japanese American dance artist born and raised in New York. After graduating from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, she graduated summa cum laude from Purchase College, SUNY. She has performed in works choreographed by Bill T. Jones, Norbert De La Cruz III, Peter Chu, Darrell Grand Moultrie, MICHIYAYA, Jie-Hung Connie Siau, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and more. Soon after graduating, she joined Nimbus Dance as a company dancer and is now working with MICHIYAYA Dance and Doug Varone and Dancers.
is an Olivier Award winner for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Joe Gillis in Sunset Blvd which he is currently reprising in his Broadway debut. Francis received his training at ArtsEd in London. Other theater credits include & Juliet (Shaftesbury Theatre); What’s New Pussycat (Birmingham Rep); Rent (Hope Mill Theatre); Hair – The Concert (London Palladium); and I Could Use A Drink (Garrick Theatre). Screen credits include “You” (Netflix) and an upcoming feature film debut in “The Mosquito Bowl,” directed by Peter Berg.
is an actor and writer who is a series regular as “Cleo” in the Apple TV+ psychological thriller Before, starring Billy Crystal, Judith Light, and Rosie Perez. In 2025, Ava made her Broadway debut in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play English by Sanaz Toossi (Roundabout). She brought back the role of “Goli” which she originated in the Off-Broadway production of English (Atlantic). Lalezarzadeh wrote and starred in the award-winning and Oscar Qualified short In the Garden of Tulips— For Your Consideration: “Best Live Action Short Film.” Tulips is a poignant meditation juxtaposing loss and hope. Inspired by Ava’s mother’s coming of age story, the film follows 16-year-old Caroline and her father along their final drive to the Iranian Countryside at the height of the Iran-Iraq War. The full-length feature by the same name is in development. Some of Ava’s additional credits include: The Morning Show (Apple TV+), Wild Life (HBO MAX), New Amsterdam (NBC), and Big Mouth (Netflix).
is an actor, musician, and writer who has quickly established herself as a force within the theatre industry. Helen currently stars in Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway (2025 Drama League Awards nominee for Distinguished Performance). She previously starred in MCC Theater’s musical The Lonely Few (40th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards nominee for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical) by Zoe Sarnak and Rachel Bonds, directed by Trip Cullman and Ellenore Scott. Recently, she captivated audiences in Anna K. Jacobs and Tony-Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R. Jackson’s musical Teeth at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Sarah Benson. Helen’s regional credits also include starring in Anna Ouyang Moench’s Man of God at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and as Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard at ACT of Connecticut. Helen earned a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan, receiving the esteemed Earl V. Moore Award.
