Reece did extensive research during those years. "When I first started working with hula kahiko I studied in The Bishop Museum. There's a section of the museum called the Ray Jerome Baker collection and he did some of the first photographs in Hawaii. And I actually went back to some of the drawings that Captain Cook's crew were painting or drawing of the dancers. I went back and studied the earlier costuming." I would sit through the (halau) practices and watch what they were doing. And I would hang out with the halau for two of three years and then I'd go on to another halau and what I found was each kumu hula, each teacher had their own style. They had their own little family. I worked with about six or eight kumu hula over the years. "