Maia
Makhateli

Benois de la Danse nominee

She was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to Nikoloz Makhateli and Marina Loladze, dancers at the Georgian National Ballet. Her grandfather was a notable folk dancer in Georgia.She received her ballet training in Tblisi at the V.Chabukiani Choreographic Institute with Larisa Chkikvishvili. At the age of 15 Maia moved to USA andcontinued her training with her father. In 2002 she moved to Colorado and studied under German Zamuel and Valentina Mukhanova. She took part competitions and after winning first place she got an offer to join the Colorado Ballet. Shortly after she became a Principal with the Company. In 2005 Maia joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet.In 2006 she was invited to join the Dutch National Ballet where she became a Principal dancer.

Awards:
Nina Ananiashvili& Gilbert Albert Star Award (2011, Georgia)
Youth American Grand Prix 2002(2002, New York City, US)
Finalist, Denver Ballet Guild's Young Dancer’s competition (2002, US)
First place, Youth America Grand Prix Competition (2002, Denver, US)
Second place, Chabukiani-Balanchine International Ballet Competition (2001)
Diplomat, International Ballet Festival, (2001, Kazan, Russia)
2014– nominatedas one of the outstanding dancers in the Netherlands by Critics’ Choice.
2015– AlexandraRadius Prize for remarkable achievements. 2015–2016 –nomination for best dancer of the year by Critics choice.
2017–2018 – Critics’ Choice award for Outstanding performance in Aleksey Ratmansky’s Don Quixote the role of Kitri.
Maia’s Repertoire: Princess Aurora (TheSleeping Beauty), Odette/Odile(Swan Lake), Marguerite(Lady of the Camelias), Clara(Nutcracker), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Kitri(Don Quixote), Cinderella, Giselle and Mata Hari in the same named ballets.Also ballets by Hans Van Manen, George Balanchine, Wayne McGregor, Ted Brandsen, Yuri Grigorovich, Rudi Van Dantzig, Christopher Wheeldon. Maia has also made guest star appearances with different companies, and been part of grand ballet festivals around the world.