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Dancing weapon says...
As a standard action, a dancing weapon can be loosed to attack on its own. It fights for 4 rounds using the base attack bonus of the one who loosed it and then drops. While dancing, it cannot make attacks of opportunity, and the person who activated it is not considered armed with the weapon. The weapon is considered wielded or attended by the creature for all maneuvers and effects that target items. While dancing, the weapon shares the same space as the activating character and can attack adjacent foes (weapons with reach can attack opponents up to 10 feet away). The dancing weapon accompanies the person who activated it everywhere, whether she moves by physical or magical means. If the wielder who loosed it has an unoccupied hand, she can grasp it while it is attacking on its own as a free action; when so retrieved, the weapon can't dance (attack on its own) again for 4 rounds.
... does that mean it only uses your base attack during the dancing, none of your strength or any of your other stuff? If so, that seems like it would have such a terrible attack bonus it wouldn't be worth it.
Do bear in mind that by the time you have 25% of your wealth stuck in a +1 dancing weapon, you're about 14th level, and the lion's share of your attack bonus is going to be from BAB, so it's not quite as penalising as it might appear, especially when you then QuickDraw your backup +1 greatsword and get 4 rounds of double attack rate.
It's still very subjective, though.
One thing I've always thought that would be funny (but I don't think it would be effective and the wealth to do so would be incredibly high). Imagine having 5 dancing weapons. Releveant feats - Quickdraw and Greater Feint. Your 'attack' would be Greater Feint then throw a weapon in the air, then pull out another one :D. Assuming full BAB and level 20 on the 4th round and up you'd be making 16 attacks a turn.
Well I dunno.
By level 14 you have either 14/9/4 or 10/5 BAB depending if you're full or 3/4 BAB class. Let's assume full for now
By that time you had 3 +1 from levels so you should have a 20 or 22 base-strength and a +4 belt at least, maybe +6. That's a +7 to +9 right there.
Then if you wouldn't spend a +4 on Dancing you can get a +5 weapon instead of a +1, which brings it up to around +13.
So... if I have a dancing weapon that attacks at +15/10/5 (14 BAB +1 enhancement) or 27/22/17... yes I see that as a slight difference right there.
What it gives you is an additional 4th, 5th and 6th itterative attack... you can imagine how likely any of those is really to hit. According to the Bestiary a CR 14 encounter has an AC of 29.
And that all for the cheap price of +4? No thanks
Situationally useful I suppose. I'd imagine that alot of time there would be a better thing to do then burning a point and a standard action but it's definately something to keep in mind.
It's useful if you have unlimited money.
If you don't, there will always be much better things to blow that kind of cash on.