Photographs by Kasia Broussalian

All images © Kasia Broussalian

Amanda Ricien brushes back her hair as she readies her two children, David, 6, and Caleb, 1, for their morning walk outside of their home in Longmont, Colo.

David Ricien, 6, reads the "I love you" message his mother, Amanda Ricien, wrote in frosting on his breakfast at their home in Longmont, Colo. David attended public schooling for his first year, but is now home-schooled by his mother.

Amanda Ricien thanks a customer after he slipped a dollar into her underwear at Nitro Club in Boulder, Colo. Ricien, 26, has been dancing for the past six years in local strip clubs across Colorado.

Amanda Ricien, as "Violet", talks to a customer at the bar at Nitro Club in Boulder, Colo. Ricien began dancing to escape an abusive relationship, and continues now, saying that is all she knows and is comfortable with.

David Ricien, 6, pulls on his coat as his mother, Amanda Ricien, straps her other son, Caleb, 1, into his stroller, at their home in Longmont, Colo. Ricien, who dances three to four nights a week at the club, says the hours there allow her to spend more time with her children and cut out the cost of childcare.

David Ricien, 6, swings on the playground outside his home in the mobilepark in Longmont, Colo. His mother, Amanda, walks to check on her youngest son, Caleb.

Amanda Ricien smokes a cigarette in between her time on stage as a dancer at Nitro Club in Boulder. This year's economic downturn has left Ricien scrambling to pick up extra shifts, many times making only $50 a night.

Amanda Ricien, as "Violet", begins her first dance of the night at Nitro Club in Boulder, Colo.

Amanda Ricien puts her youngest son, Caleb, 1, down for a nap in her home in Longmont, Colo. "Love is unconditional," she says. "It's not always easy, but it's always worth it."

As Violet, Ricien dances around two customers during a shift at Nitro Club in Boulder. Violet's shifts usually run from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m.

Money in hand, "Violet" looks asks a customer what he would like her to do during her second dance of the night at Nitro Club in Boulder.

Amanda Ricien rubs chapstick onto the lips of her youngest son, Caleb, 1, at her home in Longmont, Colo. After being emancipated from her parents at 16, Ricien moved to Colorado Springs in 1998 and picked up a job at a local diner.

"Violet" runs up the steps of the club to take a cigarette break during one of her shifts at Nitro Club in Boulder, Colo.

Amanda Ricien kisses her son, Caleb, at her home in Longmont, Colo. At 26, Ricien knows that her days at the club are numbered, but without a high school diploma, is skeptical on whether she can find another job to support her family.