Have followed the thread. FWIW I'm not sure that there are any techniques that can be taught for ballad singing other than what applies to singing generally. Perhaps I've been singing them too long. I always thought the best way to learn how to sing ballads was in simply listening to others, deciding what I liked and watching audience reactions.

My very simple advice would be to turn it into a seminar and discuss in the round, interspersed with performances starting with the 'leaders' then volunteers from the 'pupils'. Another good idea would be to play recordings of some of the greats and analyse what they were doing.