Oh yes - breathing. Even if they're a pianist they have to think about breathing.
Also 'telling a story' doesn't have to be an actual story. I'd be interested to develop a narrative around a piece with a student and then get them to take a step outside of that story, and reduce it down to what you might call its dramaturgical essence. Not quite sure how to do that but it would be fun!

Another thing that's become one of my pet projects is to get students to think about different kinds of articulation and distinguishing between them.
It's often covered in the technique parts of their lessons but it rarely seems to translate out of technical exercises into the performance of actual pieces.

I might well do so, Ron. I've got to be careful with time, though - it's a very short course. But I think what you say above is very true and is equally applicable to all performers in my experience. I've known musicians of both types - i.e. those who need to 'meditate' or zone out in some way on their own before performing, and those who are excited and chatty. I did a concert recently during the interval of which three of the players got themselves into a seemingly uncontrollable and very long fit of hysterics. They were weeping with laughter and couldn't stop. We were quite worried about the 2nd half - mere minutes away. What happened? They went out on stage and played better than they ever had before! Takes all sorts? 

I am going to talk about where to put your attention when practicing.
In the book that I have there is an interesting example from Stanislavky school. In this example a student is required to just sit on the stage. The curtain opens and she just sits. She sits for a while and then the curtains close down.
The student could not do it. However, when she has to collect bolts from the floor or wait for someone who is looking through his paper, she is capable of sitting naturally without making strange poses or pulling on her dress, looking at something on the floor or stare into the empty hall like if she is blinded by the light and fidgety. 
Movements of performers should be not only free, but appropriate to catch the right notes.
The most important thing is to put clear and simple goal before you. This is the first condition for success.
The author of the book I am reading (I already read it many times) quotes Marx. Marx compared architecture and a bee and emphasized the importance of conscious goal for means and character of human actions.
Also Pavlov said that all life and its improvements are done by reflexes in order to achieve the goal.
Reflex of the goal tunes nervous system in the right way. A child has grasping movement and they are formed by instinct. The doctor when he wants to look at patients throat tells him to say "A", not just open his mouth.

I find hh suggestion to breath very useful. I have to remind it to myself.

(Some of the quotes put there for the eyes of the government censor).

Here's a concept which I developed for a school music class (12-13 year olds) -- it reminds me a bit of auto's suggestion -- and it is more fun than it sounds, i.e., the concept doesn't let on how surprising the results can be. Only frustration is having to produce a bunch of index cards, though I suppose there are alternative ways of bringing about the same thing. Besides, card manufacture is less time consuming than composing a new score.

Split the class into chorus and conductors. There should be more chorus than conductors, but it could also be fun to have just one chorus member and all the rest are conductors.

The conductors do not keep time. All they do is produce sounds. As auto suggested, the action used to create the sound needs to be considered.

The chorus members each have a stack of index cards with the following information on each card:

1. the name of a conductor.

2. a method of imitating the sound that that conductor produces.
a. imitation as precise as possible
b. onomatopoetic imitation, i.e., "sproingg" or "buzz" or "thwack" or
c. singing a pitch that features prominently in the sound.

3. an instruction about the duration of the imitation. Either
a. equal in duration to the original sound
b. held (fermata) - which in the case of 2a or 2b means slowing down the imitation to ssssssppppprrrroooiiinnnnggggg. Duration of fermata ad lib or
c. repeated. # of durations and rapidity of durations ad lib.

The conductors are charged with making a few or many chosen and carefully considered sounds. The chorus members wait for the conductor listed on their card to make a sound, then they imitate that sound according to the instructions. Then they flip to the next card from their deck and await their next instruction. In the case of 3b or 3c, the previous instruction may well continue at the discretion of the chorus member until the next action is called forth.

Fun things:
A conductor who is silent for a while will often though not always produce a cascade of responses when he/she does finally utter.
An unpitched noise will result in very different opinions of what pitch is to be sung in the case of 2c
Other unexpected things ad libitum. 

t-p

I am sure you don't mean 'autoimmunization' -- do you? But I'm also not sure what you do mean.

With due thanks to autoharp, I am incorporating a version of this idea into my first class on Thursday. I've bought some tissues, for obvious reasons. But could I find any gobstoppers? I had to settle on strawberry bon bons. They're essentially toffees coated with a mild strawberry sherbert, so generating saliva is no problem; but I'm worried about their intra-performance longevity. It'll be messy, though. Oh yes.