The Royal Ballet stunned the dance world yesterday by making a shaven-headed maverick with no formal ballet training only the fourth resident choreographer in its 75-year history.

Wayne McGregor, 36, clinched the job this month with Chroma, his latest work for the Covent Garden company, which incorporated songs by the rock band the White Stripes and received a rapturous critical reception.

But despite the success of Chroma, he was still regarded as a rank outsider for a job that had been vacant for 13 years. Before yesterday’s announcement there had been no indication that Monica Mason, the director of the Royal Ballet, had found a successor to Sir Frederick Ashton and Sir Kenneth MacMillan, the company’s early choreographers or David Bintley, who relinquished the post in 1993.

Unlike them, McGregor’s background is in modern dance rather than ballet. While Ashton decided to become a dancer after seeing the celebrated ballerina Anna Pavlova perform, McGregor was hooked by John Travolta’s snake-hipped moves in Saturday Night Fever.

He had nothing to do with ballet until 1999 and during the past seven years has continued to combine ballet assignments with work in modern dance as well as branching out into television, theatre and film.

His appointment will appease critics who have accused the Royal Ballet of becoming a “museum company” dedicated to preserving an ageing repertoire but it will also worry some of the more traditional ballet enthusiasts.

Ms Mason attempted to reassure them last night: “It is not my intention to turn the Royal Ballet into a contemporary dance company,” she told The Times. “But as I said to the dancers this morning you always have to try to keep pushing the boundaries . . . [Ballet] is an artform that is only kept alive by being bold and daring and exploring new territory.”

For all their classic status today, Ashton and MacMillan did exactly this, she said.

“They created a wonderful roster of work for us but none of it was created comfortably. We rely on these people to make audiences sit up and take notice and that’s what Wayne did with Chroma.” McGregor said: “As the newest member of this exceptional collaborative team I look forward to sharing a rich and stimulating artistic future.”

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