I can understand Mr Bunnell's comments vis filk. I'm not a filk or Con person myself, but I know plenty who are. What I am (or have been) amongst other things (the repeatable ones, anyway), is a storyteller. Where the hell do you put your hands?

They're not occupied by an instrument. Stick them behind your back? You look like a schoolkid, up on stage, all alone & nervous. Hold them in front? Ummm… That's groin level, this isn't getting any better...

Let's face it, folkies (& filkies), after the face, the most expressive part of the human anatomy is the hands. Let's talk stereotypes. The most important thing to remember about a stereotype? It's not "Oh, that's a stereotype, how rubbish is that?" It's "stereotypes exist because they happen often enough to exist in (sub-)cultural consciousness!" Now think of some of the stereotypes you've ever seen of Mediterranean folk. Spanish, N.African, Greek, Italian... Does an image arise in your mind of people waving their hands (& arms to a lesser degree; it's the hands that are giving the meaningful signals) around in greeting, joy, argument, anger, etc? Much more so than the reserved, unemotional N.Europeans (another stereotype), eh?

And there, I think, is the answer to Tattie's opening q. Trained or untrained, if you have thought what to do with your hands, there'll be some chance they're dong something you meant them to. If you haven't... They'll either default to whatever your cultural norm is for the situation, or to what you've seen in the same setting (which might well be more specific & therefore more powerful). So our younger singers, in this instance, are probably increasingly copying other singers (younger or not) because a visibly moving hand is more noticeable than one that isn't...