After several weeks of auditions, we’re edging ever closer to finding out which dancers will comprise the Top 20 for the sixth season of So You Think You Can Dance. The grueling Las Vegas tryouts are admittedly my favorite part of the competition, leaving me wishing we could see more (last night’s episode seemed especially truncated, with so few solos featured).

Of course, I’ve got a few favorites that are still in the running, including contemporary dancers Jakob Karr and Billy Bell. Both fellas had outstanding auditions, performing captivating solos that were perfectly scored to music I hadn’t previously heard.

Karr, a native of Windemere, Florida, currently attending New York’s Fordham University, danced to Richard Walters‘ “Elephant In The Room,” which, if YouTube is any measure, is a very popular tune among the dance-studio set. Karr’s SYTYCD audition clip is definitely worth the watch (as is this extended version recorded elsewhere earlier this year), but my focus today is Walters’ 2007 tune, a stunner produced and co-written by Guy Sigsworth (Frou Frou, Alanis Morrisette), who can really do no wrong in my book.

Purchase Richard Walters – “Elephant In The Room” via Audio Lunchbox (alas, no iTunes or Amazon MP3 option).

For his SYTYCD audition, 19-year-old Billy Bell (currently enrolled at Juilliard) selected “To Build A Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra featuring Patrick Wilson.

Like Karr, Bell’s audition clip is also worth the watch, but separating the song from the movement is this moment’s goal. “To Build A Home” has been called up to the majors multiple times, notching appearances on TV dramas like Grey’s Anatomy and Friday Night Lights, but the song stands solidly on its own without such moving-picture accompaniment (check the artist’s name again).

Purchase The Cinematic Orchestra featuring Patrick Wilson – “To Build A Home” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.

Here’s hoping that both Karr and Bell make it into the Top 20 next week. And proving that the dance world is indeed a small one after all, YouTube has clips of SYTYCD Season 5 winner Jeanine Mason performing competitive routines with both (find ’em here and here).