Raquel Hellenga

Raquel is excited to return to the QTK stage for the Queer Shorts Festival. She has most recently performed at the Kalamazoo Civic in the ensembles for both The Wedding Singer and Catch Me If You Can. She especially enjoyed her experience playing Satan in QTK’s Let’s Have A Satanic Orgy! last fall. Outside of performing she is on the board for QTK and is a passionate dance teacher and area choreographer.

Raquel Hellenga, MA, brings a lifetime of performing arts passion and nearly two decades of living, working, and relating, in Kalamazoo to the QTK Board. A lifelong resident of Southwest Michigan, she grew up steeped in performing arts culture as a competitive dancer, acting in upwards of 20 local theatre productions, along with vocal, piano, and pageantry experiences.

​She received a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Communication from WMU where she participated in the Women’s and Grand Choruses. She has taught communication courses at various colleges and universities in Michigan for over ten years and utilized her deep knowledge of the Kalamazoo community across many roles and industries over the years. She also is very involved in chronic illness advocacy as a nearly-life-long Rheumatoid Arthritis patient and uses this experience to help make the arts more accessible.

​Being a proud, long-time member of Kalamazoo’s queer community, alongside her passion for the local performing arts scene, helps Raquel bring a focused and impactful voice to QTK’s board. She is currently also active with The Kalamazoo Civic, Crawlspace Eviction, and BSD Dance Studio.