He is known for bringing the complete version of the Russian ballet The Nutcracker to the United States, as well as staging the first American performances of Swan Lake and Coppélia.
Christensen left the San Francisco Ballet in the care of his brother, Harold, to help choreograph a stage production at the University of Utah in the summer of 1948.
He agreed, and spent the remainder of his life working in Utah and the Intermountain West.
Author Debra H. Sowell wrote that Willam, Harold, and Lew Christensen are the closest thing the United States has to a European-style "ballet dynasty".
Christensen was raised in Brigham City, Utah and was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.