So when photographer Peter Brew-Bevan set out to create a portrait of McAllister, his intention was to capture him mid-flight, using Henri Matisse's The Dance as a reference.

But when the two artists finally met in person for the first time, Brew-Bevan was struck by McAllister's stillness.

"David was going to be moving, but upon meeting him, I realised there's this calm energy about him, and real stillness, an almost Zen-like attitude," he said.

"Yet his brain is so creative, and he's so in control of it. I just wanted that to create a storm around him."

The resulting portrait, unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery on Monday, shows a suited McAllister, standing still with eyes cast downwards, as a blur of dancers whirls around him.

McAllister himself was among the crowd of admiring onlookers as the newly commissioned portrait was revealed for the first time, and declared himself overwhelmed by the result.

"I think it's amazing, I think it's absolutely beautiful," he said. "I had no expectation of what it was going to be like."

He said the work summed him up perfectly.

"I like the fact that I'm not actually looking at the camera," he said.

"I think that's actually quite beautiful, because I think most of my career has been selling out front to the audience, but this is really more what I do now, which is, I think, about the art and the dancers."

He said it had been surprisingly strange to stand still for a portrait, and much harder than being asked to dance for the camera.

"When you're moving, you can always make shapes, and you can make beauty, but when you're standing there, you've only got to rely on what you've got," he said.

He said he hoped the average viewer would see a portrait of someone who "is passionate about what they do".

"It's almost like you see movement in the shot, and I feel like my whole life's been about movement, so it's a great testimony and a great sense of Peter's artistry that he thought that about me," he said.

McAllister joined The Australian Ballet in 1983, was promoted to Principal Artist in 1989, and danced for the final time in 2001, the same year he became the company's artistic director.

Brew-Bevan said he had decided to portray McAllister in a suit because he wanted to present a contemporary figure.

"I think he's pushed ballet, especially The Australian Ballet, in such a contemporary direction," he said.

The portrait will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery from October 11, alongside other dance and ballet-themed portraits from the national collection.