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Practice is the key to improving at any physical activity, but not all practice holds equal weight. In order to effectively practice, time spent practicing needs to be consistent, needs to be focused, and needs to push at the boundaries of your capabilities. Repetition without all three of these elements will help you, but not as quickly or effectively as you are probably hoping. And "mindless" repetition can cause repetition of mistakes that then become much more difficult to correct.

Consistency:

Consistency is important in any practice routine. It's commonly said that it takes 10,000 hours to become good at anything. This is not wholly true. Yes, total hours practiced matters, but there is no magic number. Practice a mistake for 10,000 hours and you will become very good at repeating your mistake. Not only does it take many many hours to become proficient at anything but the frequency of this practice matters. If you practice for one hour per week for 10 weeks, you will not have gained as much as if you practice for 10 hours in one week. Frequent practice essentially tells your brain that the activity is important long-term which improves your retention of the benefits. This could point to more, shorter practice sessions could be key in speeding up progress. So if you only have 10 minutes available for practice every day, use your time wisely and the benefits will amaze you.

Focus:

When practicing, it's not enough to just do the thing you want to get better at. Social dancing is not dance practice, but rather the application of that practice. In order to get the most out of your practice sessions, pick something specific to focus on. Not only the what, but the how. It's not enough to say you're going to practice my walk, and spend 3 songs walking. Make your goals as specific as possible. Pick minute details to focus on for the entire song and try not to check out. Maybe you think about the timing of your steps with your partner's and with the music, maybe the amount of pressure between you and your partner, maybe keeping your posture consistent, maybe starting and stopping your walk. Whatever you choose to focus on, be specific and try not to get distracted. Keeping focused on the task and your goal within the task will help keep you from mindlessly repeating habits, reenforcing them. Complex movements are made up of many simpler components. So in order to successfully execute complex movements, the tiny components need to be practiced. You can continue to break down everything into smaller and smaller parts to be worked on individually. And when those components become automatic, putting them together will be simpler and smoother. 

Pushing Your Boundaries:

It's important to work at the boundaries of your capabilities in order to expand them. This doesn't mean working outside your boundaries. This will only frustrate you. But work in a way that you are challenging yourself with something that is reasonable for you to be able to do soon. Working too far inside of your boundaries may feel good at first because you will succeed, but will eventually bore you and will not expand your boundaries. Find ways to create new challenges and goals for yourself within your practice routine. Variation is important for pushing your boundaries. You don't need to find new exercises, drills, or steps in order to do this. You can practice the same movements for your entire life and never run out of ways to challenge yourself. Professional ballet dancers practice the same basic movements learned in their first classes for their entire lives. The worlds top musicians still practice scales. Finding ways to push yourself, raising your standards in terms of quality, will bring you to new heights and new levels of awareness. So whenever you find yourself becoming bored with an exercise, instead of moving on to something else, ask yourself how you could do it better. How could you change the exercise, or change what you're focusing on to create new challenges. There is always something because there is no such thing as perfection.

The process of practicing is never finished. Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes better and with consistent and focused practice which is always asking for more, you can continue to improve endlessly.

Here is a short TED-Ed Video by Annie Bosler and Don Greene about how to practice:

References:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201503/how-does-practice-hardwire-long-term-muscle-memory

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201202/some-ways-practice-are-more-perfect-others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2O6mQkFiiw