Alumni
Once a Masque, always a Masque. We do our best to keep in touch with former Masques from previous years.
Fair Lawn High School alumna and Masque extraordinaire Lara Lauchheimer recently returned from three weeks in Rwanda. Miss Lauchheimer (FLHS class of ’98), a graduate of the Boston University theater conservatory program, is a yoga teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. The following is an article about Lara that ran in the Masques’ fall 2008 playbill, at the time Lara left for this great journey. We are very proud of her.
In 1994 three months of bloodshed plagued the rolling hills of Rwanda. When the massacre ended, men, women and children were left with the difficult question of how to go forward. Today, fifteen years later, they are still struggling with the rebuilding of their homes and the healing of their spirits.
This winter, with little knowledge of what to expect, I joined the survivors to aid in their recovery. Through the practice of yoga, they gained strength, confidence, peace, and hope. Their lives were changed forever. What I didn’t expect, is that mine would be transformed as well.
I have never been afraid of following the natural flow of my life. My years spent transforming myself into different characters provided me with the sensitivity and broad vision essential for reaching out to others. Yoga was initially a technique that I used to open myself and neutralize my distinguishing habits so that I could take on the life of a scripted character. It was only recently that it became a vehicle for world travel and charitable work. My innate desire to work with challenged groups has now become too strong to ignore.
I was not driven by this deep desire to help when I first departed for Rwanda. I was simply following the flow. I fit so exactly the qualifications specified for a volunteer that it seemed obvious to me that I should go. It is only because of my experience in Rwanda that I now feel the need to direct my life’s work toward helping others through yoga.
In Rwanda, if you reach the age of 40 you have passed the average life expectancy, so it is no wonder that so many Rwandans believe themselves to be old. This state of mind is extremely limiting and harmful. With all that they have been through, my Rwandan students were already dealing with so many constrictions. The practice of yoga gave them a chance to move again in a safe and informative way. We slowly opened up some of the locked areas in their bodies and they were able to take deeper breaths and release tension.
The heavy air of tragedy still hovers over this land of a thousand hills, and fear of expression adds to the affliction. This, combined with the stress of meeting each day’s basic needs is a real problem for the survivors. Their hope lies with the many who travel across the world each year to help. It is not enough to give money, so often lost to bureaucracy. The giving of time and skills is invaluable, and the aid that works best leads to the development of self-sustaining projects.
In the last year I have taught yoga to HIV positive women and children in Rwanda and in India. This experience has deepened my relationship with my local community. I have especially enjoyed speaking to students about Africa and how they can help. I look forward to working with challenged individuals in the area and teaching them to use yoga to enrich their lives, and heal their minds and bodies.
If you would like to hear more about my experience in Rwanda, please join me for a special presentation on Thursday, May 7th at 8pm the Fair Lawn Jewish Center or check out my blog, www.adventuresinyogaland.blogspot.com. You can also contact me at BebiTaurus@aol.com for individual or group classes.
In addition, the following article was written about her in the playbill.
Masques without Borders
by Kelsey Kahn
We all talk about helping the world, but some of us go out and do something about it. Lara Lauchheimer, a Masques alumna, class of 98’, recently gave up her apartment in Brooklyn, New York, to begin work in her new home in the central African country of Rwanda. Her goal? To help make the world a better place. But how did a small town girl end up in central Africa?
Lara started off her journey as an actor with the Masques. She was a great presence in the club both on and off the stage. Among her fine performances were Rita in Prelude to a Kiss and Juror 5 in the Masques’ first “in the round” show Twelve Angry Men in the fall of 1997.
Lara attended Boston University where she completed the school’s rigorous theater conservatory program. There she wrote the one-woman show The Body Project, which she toured with and starred in.
Following college, Lara looked to a different profession and decided to pursue a career in yoga, a soothing, spiritual, and mind cleansing exercise, a form of relaxation helpful in assisting people forget troubling memories. For Lara yoga would have a more global scope. She took two trips abroad, studying the discipline in India. She soon realized that volunteering her time and skills to help those around the world less fortunate would be the best use of her positive energy.
Lara started participating in Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx), a program designed to help the women and children that have become victims of the horrible Genocide that took place in 1994. The aftermath of the Genocide left destruction of Rwandan towns and devastation among their people.
Lara set out to prepare for her trip by starting to raise the $10,000 that she needs to set out on the three-month tour and is starting to learn French, the native language of the country.
Currently, Lara is residing in Rwanda, helping the victims of the Genocide, passing on her wisdom and healing techniques to the people of Rwanda.
If you would like to find out more about Lara’s cause, you can visit Lara’s blog at:
www.adventuresinyogaland.blogspot.com
Or you can send a tax-deductible donation to:
WE-ACTx
Rwanda Yoga Program (LL)
584 Castro St. #416
San Francisco, CA 941114
A 100 dollar donation from the Masques has been made to support this worthy cause. Thank you, Lara, for your vision and dedication toward bettering the world.
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