Lindy Hop dancers are in motion all the time, moving around the dance floor to the rhythm of the music. Despite this constant motion, there are some specific places—relative to each other—that the dancers return to time and time again.

These common dance positions form part of the punctuation of the dance (along with the rhythm structure). Particularly for beginner and intermediate dancers, returning to a familiar dance position at the end of a particular rhythm pattern gives the dancers time and space to think before forging on into the rest of the dance. These dance positions are also a useful shorthand for describing moves compactly, because they come up time and time again.

Conversion between closed and side positions

The positions described below are listed with the most common positions given first. The open and closed positions are the most important and are similar to many other partner dances. The side position (sometimes known as a promenade position) is normally reached by opening up a gap between dancers who are in a closed position; this involves the leader swinging his right arm around to the right, as if the leader's right hand side and the follower's left hand side were joined by a hinge.

The wrap and sweetheart positions are variations of the side position, with the dancers hands interlinked in more complicated ways. These positions are often reached with a transition from the open position, with the leader pulling the follower into his right hand side, turning her 180° anticlockwise as she does so. For the wrap position, this is achieved with a double hand grip (left-to-right and right-to-left); for the sweetheart position, this is achieved by starting from a right-to-right hand hold.

The dance position with one partner standing directly behind the other is common in Lindy Hop because of the frequency of Charleston-derived moves in Lindy Hop; this position is much less common in other dances.