Maia Makhateli was born in Tbilisi (Georgia). She began her training at the Choreographic institute of Vakhtang Chabukiani in Tbilisi. In 2002, Maia moved to United States and she continued her training in Colorado. During that time, she was finalist and medalist of a few important ballet competitions, which earned her an offer to join the Colorado Ballet. Shortly after that, she became a principal with the company. In 2005, the dancer joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet. In 2006, she was invited to join the Dutch National Ballet, where she became a principal dancer. She received a number of important international awards, such as the Nina Ananiashvili and Gilbert Albert Award, in 2011. In 2014, she was nominated for the Critics’ Choice Awards as one of the outstanding dancers in the Netherlands for her performance in Aleksei Ratmansky's Firebird and Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de deux. In 2015, she was awarded the Alexandra Radius Prize for remarkable achievements.