Contemporary Dance in Cuba Now. Abigail Levine. Imagine you are a botanist and you take a trip. As you get to know the place you are visiting, you realize that botany is considered an essential part of national culture and history. Botanists are celebrities on a par with pop singers and movie stars. When you tell people what you do, they ask you well-informed questions and tell you about their favorite plant species. Most astoundingly, you discover that when people are feeling most jubilant, want most to feel the power of life and human company, they study plants. This is what it feels like to arrive in Cuba as a dancer. . . . MORE