“When I was dancing, I watched clubs take money to turn a blind eye to what was happening to me and to other dancers,” Christine DeMaria told The Post, detailing the vicious behavior she allegedly endured while working in a pair of “private” VIP lounges in Manhattan.

“I was bit above my left breast so hard, it bled. I was sexually assaulted by customers while on stage. A guy choked me by putting a belt around my neck, and he then raped me up against a wall. I was fired for reporting a rape,” the 37-year-old claimed.

DeMaria grew up in New Jersey, and by the age of 15, was trafficked to Arizona by an older man who had been grooming her, she said.

By 2014, she was stripping.

“I was fired for reporting a rape at a club, and as I was being fired, the manager told me, ‘You’re a stripper. You asked for this.’

“Of course I didn’t ask to be raped.”

She was slapped in the face on several occasions — hit so hard, her skin was left red, DeMaria claimed.

“In the strip club industry, dancers are often forced to choose between accepting sexual abuse or walking away without the means to support themselves,” she said.

“Over and over, I witnessed the owners and managers of strip clubs completely disregard human life.”

She stepped off the stage for good in 2021 — and decided to hit the legal books instead, attending New York Law School.

While she was still in law school, DeMaria launched a non-profit called Switch, or Sex Workers in Transition Compassion Home, which aims to provide dancers with “education, career guidance, and a real exit ramp if they want one.”

In 2023, DeMaria was recognized with the Walentas Family Foundation’s David Prize, which bestows $200,000 each upon five “visionary” New Yorkers annually.

“In an industry that puts a price on people, Christine envisions a New York where people can instead be priceless,” according to the David Prize online profile.

In 2023, DeMaria was recognized with the Walentas Family Foundation’s David Prize, which bestows $200,000 each upon five “visionary” New Yorkers annually.

She graduated law school in June and passed the state bar a month later.

DeMaria, who worked for Sapphire 39 in Midtown and Sapphire 60 on the Upper East Side, is seeking $10 million damages against the company for alleged “rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, forcible touching, assault, battery, sex trafficking, and unlawful false imprisonment,” according to her Manhattan Supreme Court filings.

“I witnessed women punished for refusing sex acts and for reporting sexual assault, while management profited from our suffering and sold access to our bodies without our knowledge,” DeMaria told The Post.

“When I was dancing, I didn’t have the resources, knowledge, or support to pursue justice,” she added. “My law school education changed that. Now, I intend to hold these clubs accountable for abusing women in violation of the law.”

DeMaria has also sued Vivid Cabaret, on West 37rd Street, and Hoops Cabaret on West 33rd Street, which share the same ownership, for $15 million, accusing the company of rape, sex assault and sex trafficking, as well as forcible touching and battery, among other claims.

She has accused the club Gossip, on Long Island, of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and other claims, seeking $2.5 million in damages, according to court records.

The cases are pending. Lawyers for Vivid, Hoops, and Gossip didn’t return calls for comment.