During a master class with a singer in Bern, one student was singing an Aria while looking towards the ceiling with his eyes. This caught my attention and I made a note to address it when I worked with him. His teacher worked with him first and had him look at his hand and imagine that it was a beautiful picture. Because the lyrics described what he was looking at, his eyes and visual attention were now brought down to a more functional height. When I worked with the student, I worked with breathing and let the eyes go because they took care of themselves with the gesture.
As is often the case, when musical expression is clear, the posture and gesture will follow along. This applies to instrumentalists as well, but as I mentioned before is less obvious.
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