Ah, that's true. Battledancer says "your Performance check to Perform".
Out of the context of Swashbuckler, though, they would, as mentioned. Fascinating Performance is a non-action that triggers when you use the Perform action. Acrobatic Performer allows you to roll Acrobatics instead of Performance when you use the Perform action, no conditions. Nothing indicates that these can't stack, but keep in mind that you'd still need to keep training Performance to qualify for later ones, and if a feat says something like "roll a Performance check" (as opposed to "use the Perform action"), you can't substitute Acrobatics for that unless your GM is easygoing. For example, you wouldn't be able to use it with Leading Dance, the only Battledancer-intended feat besides Focused Fascination (and thankfully not an invaluable one, generally).
Assuming the idea is that your character isn't possessed of social graces but does have physical grace — which describes a character of mine as well! — I can see why you'd want to use Battledancer with a low Charisma character, but the setup of Swashbuckler seems very specifically intended not to allow the key stat of the class to mix with any of the skills needed for Panache, other than the default one (Tumble Through/Acrobatics).
There are lots of ways you could go here, though: flavor Tumble Through as dancing around an opponent and gain Panache you can then spend or keep, using Acrobatics-based Fascinating Performance for other benefits, or maybe your GM thinks Fascinating Performance's benefits will be about as helpful in the campaign as Tumble Through (it's mostly helpful for drawing attention and tripping up spellcasting from what I can tell) and allows Acrobatic Performer to mix, or maybe you average your Charisma and Dexterity when you want to gain Panache from it, or maybe you just take a -1 to reflect the intention that it not be your key stat. Talk with your GM if it's important, see what they think. If it's not that important, that's cool too.
Perform was no longer a word for a bit there. This happened last time I did research to clarify a rules interaction too. ^_^;
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It's "unlikely" that Paizo deliberately did something so unfair towards acrobatics.
No, it isn't. I'd say it's quite likely indeed.
All Swashbucklers can use Acrobatics to gain Panache by Tumbling Through. If they want to gain Panache another way they must always use another Skill. I see no reason to believe they intended Battledancers to only need to invest in one stat and Skill ever while all other Swashbucklers need two.
The benefit of using Perform to get panache is that you can do it from any distance and attempt it repeatedly with no penalty. Plus, the Leading Dance feat is amazing, which already encourages Battle Dancers to invest in Performance. Allowing Acrobatic Performance to get panache is unnecessary for balance.
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To expand on Salamileg's point, all the other options have pretty restrictive use cases. Feint is only vs. people you're adjacent to and vs. their (usually high) Perception while Create Diversion is also vs. Perception and effectively only once per combat, Demoralize can only be used once per target per fight, and a Gymnast's combat maneuvers have the attack trait and thus combo poorly with same turn finishers.
Battle Dancer's Performance has no real effect on the target in the midst of combat, but it's a pretty likely chance to work to gain Panache against anyone who can see you, with no restrictions on how many times you can use it or vs. who. That's a sizable advantage.
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Athetics and Feint are top.
According to who? I've seen a lot of people call Feint the worst because it targets Perception, which is much higher than the other possible targets, on average.
Intimidate becomes top by lvl 9 ( you can use it even on immune targets ).
Braggart's level 9 effect is great, but you still need to be within 30 feet and share a language (or invest in Skill Feats) even then.
Which leaves Wit and Dancer, which are probably the worst for combat ( even if their improved finisher are imo good ).
And out of combat Bon Mod wins.
Does it? -3 to Will Saves is probably less useful outside combat than Fascinating Performance in a lot of cases.
Also, I've seen more than one person cite Battle Dancer as one of the better Swashbuckler options. Leading Dance is one of the single best forced movement options in the game.
But, I repeat myself, the issue here is the wording.
If they had said"you have to roll a DECEPTION/ATHLETICS/INTIMIDATION check"
instead of
"you have to roll a check to feint/diversion or grab/trip/shove or demoralize"
there wouldn't have been any issue.
But they didn't need to. Those didn't have a Feat to make the Swashbuckler SAD and entirely Acrobatics based and never will (since using Acrobatics for those things doesn't mostly make sense, and they now know it would be a balance problem). Preventing that very specific balance problem is likely one of the reasons for the wording under Battle Dancer being the way it is.
But since for example there are feat like "Versatile Performance" which allows you to use performance to gain panache on a demoralize check, I am sorry, but we are facing some balance issues.
No we aren't.
Performance is still Cha based and not the same skill as Acrobatics. The balance issue with Acrobatic Performer and Battle Dancer is specific to that combo, if allowed, suddenly making Battle Dancer dependent on only a single skill and stat (instead of two skills and two stats like every other Swashbuckler). Needing two stats and two Skills is a balancing mechanic...the fact that you can switch one Skill involved from Intimidate to Performance doesn't matter because it doesn't save resources by allowing you to invest in fewer stats and Skills, you still need to max out two of each.
Athetics and Feint are top.
Intimidate becomes top by lvl 9 ( you can use it even on immune targets ).Which leaves Wit and Dancer, which are probably the worst for combat ( even if their improved finisher are imo good ).
And out of combat Bon Mod wins.
Wait, what ? How are Athletics and Feint better ?
Athletics counts towards your MAP so you usually won't be using a finisher on the same turn. It has somewhat more utility but about two-thirds the damage of the other styles, even with the emphasis on STR.
Feint, like Deadmanwalking said, is only melee and against Perception (unless you're a kobold). So yeah, for a kobold, it's awesome. For everyone else, it's subpar. And I mean subpar as in "nigh unplayable".
Intimidate is weak until level 9 like you said and even then, some mobs are immune to fear.
There's no such things with battledancer. Even if you don't fascinate, you still gain panache. Their check is the easiest to perform (at range, against will, no immunity) so it falls to reason that their result is also among the weakest (until you take leading dance and now you have one of the best results with one of the easiest checks).
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We all agree on this ( I made up my mind and said this before, and even earlier ).
Okay, cool. Glad we're in agreement there.
The only thing I am against is the wording.
If styles are meant to use 2 different skills, then I espect players to use them and not to use different skills to cover up for them ( like versatile performance ).
But what's the problem with this? Using Versatile Performance to demoralize on a Swashbuckler is more difficult to achieve than just using Intimidate for no real benefit. It's more resource investment with no real benefit. I fail to see the problem.
I mean, I guess there's Virtuosic Performer, but if you're willing to spend 2 Class Feats and a Skill Feat for a +2 bonus on Demoralize, I'm comfortable with that. That's a huge investment for the gain it achieves.
@Bluefrog: Intimidate is not good as when you have lvl 9, but it's something you can use to help allies too, so it's definitely ok even before lvl 9.
Intimidate is very solid. I think all of them are really pretty well balanced, really.
Did anyone see where I asked if Flamboyant Athlete and Powerful Leap effect stack or is it redundant?
They both set the distance you can Leap vertically to 5 feet, so that number wouldn't stack. However, Flamboyant Athlete flatly sets the distance you can leap horizontally, while Powerful Leap adds to it, so they should stack that way (for a 25 foot horizontal leap if you have Speed 30 or more).