Maia Makhateli

After finding England ‘too cold and grey’, she auditioned for the Dutch National Ballet. She started as a grand sujet in 2007, was promoted to a soloist two years later, and was named a principal in 2010. She has danced leading roles such as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and Odette/Odile in Swan Lake.

Makhateli started dance training at the age of 9, with the Vakhtang Chabukiani Choreographic Institute. At the age of 16, she left her parents and moved to the U.S, where she studied at the San Valley Ballet School in Idaho. After that she danced with the Colorado Ballet. She made her full length principal role debut at age 19, dancing Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. Hoping to dance for a bigger company and be closer to Europe, she joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet as a soloist in 2006. That year, paired with her brother, she danced Romeo and Juliet at the World International Ballet Festival in Tokyo, saying, "It's quite hard to be Juliet when Romeo is your brother."

Maia Makhateli (born ca. 1986) is a Georgian ballet dancer. After terms with the Colorado Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet, she joined the Dutch National Ballet in 2006 where she now is a principal dancer.