Summer update: Early this summer I had a dendrobium unica that I thought died. All its leaves fell off and it looked dead. I nursed it back to health and it has leaves and the roots are growing well. Yeah!
Good growing! Moral of the story... never cut anything that is green (or anything not crispy-brown) - it likely is not as dead as it looks. That goes double for Dendrobiums, a lot of them go through dormant stages where the lose leaves, only to spring to life when you are losing hope.