By Meagan IngersonThe Daily Northwestern

Bright apple-green walls and colorful window displays cut though the quiet, dark rows of Laundromats and hair salons Friday night along Howard Street. Inside the brightly lit boutique, salsa music played among the French blouses and $300 sweaters.

Apple the Second, 745 Howard St., began offering salsa lessons at the store every Friday almost a year ago. Owner Maria del Rocio Von Medvey said she and instructor Anyes Daskal came up with the idea as a way to help the community.

“We are concerned with bringing up the street,” said Von Medvey, who owns the store with her husband, Stanley. “So many buildings are being converted to condominiums and so many young people are in the neighborhood, and there’s not many activities for people.”

Daskal had been a regular customer at the boutique, which opened about a year ago, when the two decided to offer the classes for $12 per person or $20 per couple. Now, there are six couples who regularly come to dance, Von Medvey said.

Originally from Paris, Daskal said she didn’t learn to dance until she moved to America in her twenties.

“My school of dancing was literally ‘Soul Train,'” she said, laughing. “From then, I was hooked.”

Daskal said she started dancing disco in the 1970s and switched to ballroom dance in the 1980s before discovering salsa more than a decade ago.

“Ever since I discovered salsa, there was nothing else,” she said.

Daskal said she has more than 300 salsa combinations to teach, “so I can never run out.”

Jennifer Munoz and Javier Monllor, of Rogers Park, have been taking lessons at the boutique since the late summer. Monllor said they started taking classes when Munoz saw a sign at the boutique.

The duo came to the classes with limited dancing experience.

“We took really basic (dance) classes at Truman College,” Monllor said.

“They were really boring, too,” Munoz added.

Daskal said the couple has shown “a lot of progress” since starting at Apple the Second.

“We used to just go back and forth, and now we can do all sorts of turns,” Monllor said.

When the couple arrived Friday, Munoz flipped open a laptop she’d brought to show Daskal a video of a set of turns and swirls she wanted to learn.

“She’s obsessed,” Monllor said.

They started working though the steps, and other couples stepped out onto the dance floor as the night progressed.

Joy and Shelton Scott, of Oak Park, attended their first lesson Friday night. Joy Scott said she had never taken any salsa classes before.

“I met Anyes and it just sounded like so much fun,” Joy Scott said.

Shelton Scott said he had never taken any kind of dance lesson before, but “I promised my wife I’d come.”

Daskal spent Friday evening teaching the Scotts the basic eight-count salsa step and explaining the importance of leading, while flitting between the more advanced couples.

Von Medvey and her husband also take advantage of Daskal’s teaching.

“It’s a very personal level,” Von Medvey said. “She really makes sure that you know the steps she’s teaching you.”

The classes, scheduled to last an hour, often don’t end until 9 or 10 p.m., Von Medvey said. Students shop during breaks and everyone finishes the night with a glass of wine or champagne.

“It’s always fun because it’s like a party,” Daskal said. “It’s a whole experience.”

Reach Meagan Ingerson at [email protected].