DANCE : Bronze Idol Facing Golden Years at 31 : An injury that puts ABT’s Johan Renvall out of commission for a few days has reminded him that the clock is ticking on his career.

When the curtain goes up on the third act of the ballet “La Bayadere,” the audience usually gasps at the bronzed idol figure that magically comes to life and bounds across the stage.

Reality can be a lot more prosaic, however.

Johan Renvall, who joined the American Ballet Theatre in 1978, had to wait seven years before he was promoted from a soloist to a principal dancer. Now, he says he loves the role of the Bronze Idol but, at 31, “the steps are getting harder and harder every year.

“Thirty-one is not that old,” he said in a recent interview, “but in a dancer’s life you’re worried about getting older.”

Older and more prone to injury.

Renvall was scheduled to dance the Bronze Idol on Monday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, and the role of Franz in “Coppelia” the previous Saturday, but a pulled rib muscle knocked him out for a few days. He remains scheduled to dance the Bronze Idol Friday and may take the role as early as Thursday.

His injury, while not serious, reminded him that the clock is ticking and that progress at ABT, which he joined in 1978, has not been rapid.

Growing up in his native Stockholm, Renvall began figure skating before he took up dancing.

“Dancing came in because I needed something to do between skating seasons,” he said. “It also helped . . . to get a sort of softer look to skating.” But then, after a few years, dancing had seized his interest, and “I had to make a choice.”

Between his regular studies at the Royal Swedish Ballet School, he began sneaking into the theater to work some more. He also studied privately with Alexander Minz, then affiliated with ABT. Minz talked him into auditioning for the company, which Renvall joined shortly after winning the silver medal at the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition.

Going from Stockholm to New York was “a very big transition,” Renvall said. “I was just very quiet the first year. I just listened to what people were saying. I didn’t say much--’yes,’ ‘no,’ ‘maybe.’ That was what I said.”

He “didn’t really hit it off” with Mikhail Baryshnikov, who took over ABT as artistic director in 1980. “I think it was because people compared us and said I danced the way he did, which I didn’t. It was a hard time.”

His champion at the company may have been choreographer Antony Tudor, who was creating psychological ballets for ABT. Renvall appeared in some of Tudor’s ballets. “He was wonderful to work with,” Renvall said. “He was rude, nasty, but at the same time wonderful.

“He taught the steps and then watched you develop the character.” Once when Renvall and the late Peter Fonseca were studying “Undertow,” Tudor’s knotty ballet about a tortured adolescent murderer, the choreographer was unhappy with their efforts. “He just shoved us aside and said, ‘Sit down,’ ” Renvall recalled. “He walked into the center of the studio and just stood there. Then by just turning his head, he was exactly what you would expect the boy to be at that moment. He was there. He was 12 years old.”

At 5-foot-7, Renvall is not the ideal height for the princely ballet roles and says he has lost opportunities because of that. “Sometimes it is frustrating. But you learn to deal with it. There are roles that I want to do. . . . Most of the roles I would like to do, we don’t really have in the rep this year.”

Nor is he dancing as much as he would like. “If I had my way, I’d love to be on every night,” he said. “I have a hard time dancing maybe once or twice a week. But then, there are a lot of dancers in the company. Things have to go around.”

The one choreographer he’s “dying to work with” is William Forsythe, whose nonstop movement ballets “just grab me. . . . You want to go out and scream on stage, tell everyone this is what I feel.”

Renvall regards critics warily.

“A lot of times,” he said, “they come up with words you’ve never heard of. Plenty of times I’ve had to go to the dictionary, and I don’t think it’s just because I’m Swedish and didn’t grow up with the English language. Besides, the hardest critics are your fellow dancers.”

What are an Idol’s best friends?

“Lemon Fresh Joy and a luffa sponge,” Renvall answered with a laugh. “It’s a hassle to get (the bronze paint) off. There are metal fibers in there, which make it shine the way it does. But they go into your pores! I itch for two days afterwards.”

American Ballet Theatre will dance “La Bayadere” with different casts today through Friday at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $12 to $49. Information: (714) 556-2787.